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Contractors themselves are in charge of collecting asphalt samples, delivering them to a lab and reporting the results. To the shock of absolutely no one, some took liberties. In 2014, the report notes, a “whistleblower explained that the contractor would submit good samples for testing purposes but lay poor-quality asphalt on highways.” (It doesn’t exactly take Moriarty to get one over on this gang.)

This confirmed longstanding suspicions at the Ministry, who alerted its Forensic Investigation Team, which didn’t do anything. “When we met with the OPP, they told us that they thought the information provided by the whistleblower was credible,” Lysyk reports, “but they did not conduct an investigation as they were waiting for the Ministry to provide additional information if it wanted to start an investigation, which it did not.” Oh well.

Apropos of nothing, the OHMPA gave $9,740 to the Liberals in 2015; the ORBA gave $14,001; combined, the top 10 provincial contractors, four of whom are also asphalt suppliers, gave $101,255.

On the bright side, the Ministry reports it has “already implemented a province-wide trial” — best not move too fast! — “where the care and control of samples was undertaken by the Ministry or its agents.” Del Duca said that would be general practice as of 2017. He disputed that bonuses were paid merely for fulfilling contractual agreements, but the ministry did commit to “review our current practice” on the matter. (It actually “stopped tracking the amounts” of bonuses paid after 2012, Lysyk found, “because of increased workload and lack of time.”)