The receipts

Direct answer

Office of the Auditor General of Ontario - reports · Verified 2026-08-04

A record that can be checked

Argument is easy to dismiss. A finding by the province’s own Auditor General is not. So this page contains almost nothing of ours except the last paragraph of each entry, which is clearly marked as ours.

Three rules govern what appears here. Nothing is promoted from a claim to a finding, however much we agree with it. Nothing asserts what anyone intended, only what was done, what it cost, and what an oversight body concluded. And anything we could not confirm to a named source was left out rather than softened.

That last rule cost this page several entries we would have liked to include. It is the reason you can rely on the ones that remain, and the reason a government spokesperson reading this page has nothing easy to attack.

On special education as a funding precedent

One strand below needs its framing stated openly, because it is the one place where we are drawing an inference rather than reporting a finding.

Ontario proposal

Public funding of independent schools in Ontario has been proposed specifically for students with special education needs, costed by Cardus in 2019 at $78 million to $195 million a year, citing a Fraser Institute proposal from 2004.

Cardus · Fraser Institute · verified 2026-08-04

Alberta recommendation

The same institute recommended in 2020 that Alberta “target additional financial resources to expanding independent-school options for special-needs students.”

Cardus · verified 2026-08-04

Polling

Polling released in February 2026 found 66% of Alberta parents with school-aged children supported public funding for children with special needs at independent schools, while 39% of Albertans supported expanding education outside the public system generally.

Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus · verified 2026-08-04

We previously reasoned from this that a narrower, more sympathetic ask is easier to pass than a broad one, and that a funding channel which exists can later be widened. We have since tested that reading and are withdrawing it. In every province that funds independent schools (Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan) general or religious funding came first and special-education designations were added afterwards. The sequence the theory predicts has not happened anywhere it could have.

What survives is narrower, verified, and comes from the advocates’ own research: of roughly 1,445 independent schools in Ontario, 57 emphasize special education. Whatever anyone intends, disabled children are the opening argument for a policy that would mostly benefit other schools.

We publish both halves because families should be able to weigh it themselves, and because a page that only prints the findings that suit us is not worth reading. The full investigation, including what cuts against us →

For the bargaining context these findings sit inside, start with the 2026 briefing.

Browse source records

Showing 22 of 22 entries.

1. Claim Interested party June 3, 2026

   Unions say education has been underfunded by billions since 2018

   Asserted by ETFO, OSSTF, OECTA, AEFO and CUPE-OSBCU; and separately OSBCU. Not an independent finding.

   Ontario’s education unions assert that public education has been underfunded by about $6.4 billion since 2018, as reported by The Globe and Mail. The Ontario School Board Council of Unions separately states the figure as $6.5 billion in cuts since 2018. These figures differ from one another, and neither has been confirmed by an independent oversight body.

   What it means for disabled kids

   We include this because it is central to the dispute, and we label it a claim because that is what it is. We are sympathetic to the underlying argument and we still will not present a bargaining figure as an audited one. Where an independent body has quantified something - as the Auditor General did on special education - we cite that instead.

   Ontario education unions · Read the source document

2. Finding Auditor General of Ontario May 12, 2026

   Special education funding has not kept pace with need

   The Auditor General reported that special education funding rose from $3.1 billion in 2019/20 to $3.6 billion in 2023/24 - growth of 15% against inflation of 15%, while board spending grew 19%. In 2023/24, 46 of Ontario's 72 school boards spent $398M more on special education than they received. At the boards examined, educational assistant absences went unfilled 49-72% of the time, and 18% of educational assistants were absent on an average day. Only 21% of classroom teachers surveyed said they could meet most of the special education needs in their class, and 87% said they sometimes, rarely or never had the resources to implement an Individual Education Plan. 39% of teachers surveyed had observed exclusions that were not documented. The audit made 15 recommendations: 13 agreed by the Ministry and selected boards · 2 disagreed by the Ministry.

   What it means for disabled kids

   This is the baseline, not the crisis. Every figure here describes the ordinary operating state of the system on a day when nobody is on strike. When bargaining is described as a fight about staffing, this is what staffing determines: whether a disabled child can be at school at all.

   Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

3. Published proposal Policy institute January 30, 2026

   Public support nearly doubles when funding is framed around special needs

   An Angus Reid Institute survey conducted in partnership with Cardus, fielded January 27-30, 2026 among a randomized sample of 516 Alberta adults, found that 64% supported public funding for children with special needs attending an independent school. Asked more generally whether government should expand educational opportunities outside the public system, Albertans were divided - 39% in favour and 46% opposed.

   What it means for disabled kids

   The same policy draws 64% support framed around disabled children and 39% framed generally. We are not alleging that anyone designed the framing for that effect. We are noting, from published polling, that disabled children are the framing under which this policy polls best - and that families should know their children are the most persuasive argument available for a policy that is not primarily about them.

   Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus · Read the source document

4. Finding Auditor General of Ontario December 10, 2025

   Greenbelt follow-up: one recommended action has made little progress

   In its follow-up on the 2023 Greenbelt special report, the Auditor General found that, as of August 20, 2025, the Province had fully implemented 95% (21 of 22) of the recommended actions, including re-evaluating the 2022 boundary decision, which was reversed. Little or no progress had been made on one: an independent and comprehensive review of the Lobbyists Registration Act, 1998, the Members’ Integrity Act, 1994 and the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006.

   What it means for disabled kids

   The government acted on almost everything the Auditor General asked for, and the decision was reversed. The one action left is a review of the laws that say who must disclose their contact with government. It includes the Lobbyists Registration Act review the Legislature referred to committee in 2021, which never began.

   Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

5. On the record Legislative Assembly of Ontario November 20, 2025

   The Minister of Education gained power to take control of a school board directly

   The Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025 (Bill 33) received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025. Among other measures, it expanded the Minister of Education’s powers to direct investigations into school boards on matters of public interest, to issue binding directions, and to vest control of a board’s administration - including financial management and asset disposition. These powers previously required approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The Act contains no provisions directly addressing special education.

   What it means for disabled kids

   Decisions about how a board allocates special education staffing can now be taken further from the parents affected by them, and closer to a single provincial office. When your child’s support is cut, the question of who to escalate to has changed.

   Legislative Assembly of Ontario · Read the source document

6. Finding Auditor General of Ontario October 1, 2025

   Skills Development Fund selection was not fair, transparent or accountable

   In a 2025 special report, the Auditor General found the Ministry’s intake and evaluation processes for the Skills Development Fund Training Stream complied with provincial policy. But 549 (54%) of the applications the Minister’s Office selected for funding were ranked “Poor,” “Low” or “Medium,” and they received about $742 million, or 56% of the funding provided to SDF applicants over the first five rounds, while 670 applications ranked “High” were not selected. The Auditor General concluded the selection process “was therefore not fair, transparent or accountable, and there was little rationale to explain why the high-ranked applicants were not chosen.” The Ministry agreed with all four recommendations.

   What it means for disabled kids

   The Ministry’s intake and evaluation process complied with policy. The Auditor General’s concern was the final selection: choices that did not follow the rankings, with little rationale recorded. Published reasons are what let the public check a decision.

   Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

7. Finding Financial Accountability Office February 1, 2025

   Accelerating alcohol retail expansion carried a $612 million price tag

   The Financial Accountability Office estimated the net cost of expanding Ontario’s beverage alcohol marketplace at about $1.4 billion to 2029-30, of which about $612 million was attributable specifically to the decision to accelerate the expansion rather than proceed on the original timetable.

   What it means for disabled kids

   Included for scale, not for outrage. The cost of moving one retail policy forward by roughly sixteen months is within the same order of magnitude as the annual special education funding increases the Auditor General found insufficient.

   Financial Accountability Office of Ontario · Read the source document

8. Finding Auditor General of Ontario December 3, 2024

   A procurement found not fair, transparent or accountable

   The Auditor General reported that the estimated cost of the Ontario Place redevelopment had grown to about $2.2 billion, against a 2019 projection of about $424 million. The Auditor General found the procurement process was not fair, transparent or accountable, and documented direct communication between an Infrastructure Ontario vice-president and one bidder during the open call. The selected operator holds a 95-year lease.

   What it means for disabled kids

   Included because it establishes something about process rather than politics: the finding that a procurement was not fair, transparent or accountable came from the province’s own Auditor General. Families told there is no money for educational assistants are entitled to see where money did go, and how it was decided.

   Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

9. Finding Auditor General of Ontario December 3, 2024

   Some zoning-order requests got what looked like preferential treatment

   In its 2024 audit of Minister’s Zoning Orders, the Auditor General found that for four (16%) of the 25 orders it sampled, a high-ranking member of the Minister’s Office staff directed Ministry staff to prioritize a request for which this individual had been directly lobbied, with no other documented rationale. The Auditor General concluded: “Actions such as this give the appearance of preferential treatment for some proponents of MZOs over others.”

   What it means for disabled kids

   The Auditor General’s word is “appearance,” and we use the same word. The finding is about process: when a decision has no written reason, nobody outside can tell why one request moved ahead of another.

   Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

10. Finding Financial Accountability Office November 1, 2024

    Moving ServiceOntario counters into a retailer cost more than announced

    The Financial Accountability Office reported that total payments to Staples Canada under the agreement to operate nine in-store ServiceOntario locations came to about $11.7 million - roughly $1.5 million more than the cost the government had announced.

    What it means for disabled kids

    A small file with a large lesson: when a public service is moved to a private operator, the announced cost and the audited cost were not the same number. Worth remembering whenever a delivery change is justified by savings.

    Financial Accountability Office of Ontario · Read the source document

11. Finding Financial Accountability Office June 5, 2024

    A $3.7 billion shortfall against what the ministry needs

    The Financial Accountability Office found that the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services was allocated about $3.7 billion less than required over 2024-25 to 2026-27, with annual gaps of roughly $0.7 billion, $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion. The FAO reported that a $600 million Ontario Autism Program budget funds full core service allocations for approximately 10,142 children.

    What it means for disabled kids

    The waitlist is not an administrative backlog that better processing will clear. The province’s own independent financial watchdog costed the gap between what is budgeted and what the program requires, and it is measured in billions.

    Financial Accountability Office of Ontario · Read the source document

12. Claim Interested party April 1, 2024

    Advocacy survey reports patients charged at private clinics

    Asserted by Ontario Health Coalition. Not an independent finding.

    The Ontario Health Coalition published a report stating that of 231 patients it surveyed, 120 reported being charged for medically necessary care at private clinics, most commonly in connection with cataract surgery. This is an advocacy organization’s survey of self-selected respondents, not a government audit or a regulatory finding.

    What it means for disabled kids

    Reported here with its methodology stated plainly so readers can weigh it themselves. A self-selected survey is evidence of a pattern worth investigating, not proof of its scale.

    Ontario Health Coalition · Read the source document

13. Finding Auditor General of Ontario December 6, 2023

    Hospitals paid private agencies roughly three times staff rates for nurses

    The Auditor General reported that Ontario hospitals spent at least 170 million dollars on agency nurses in 2022-23, and that agency nurses worked more than 1.7 million hours, double the previous year. Hospitals paid agencies between 99 and 106 dollars an hour for an emergency department registered nurse in southern Ontario, and between 100 and 160 dollars an hour in northern Ontario, roughly three times the cost of a staff nurse. The audit also recorded 203 unplanned temporary emergency department closures at 23 hospitals between July 2022 and June 2023.

    What it means for disabled kids

    This is the documented cost of running a public service on staffing shortages instead of staff. It is the same pattern families see in schools when an unfilled educational assistant absence becomes a phone call home - except in health care, someone quantified it.

    Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

14. Finding Integrity Commissioner of Ontario August 30, 2023

    A minister was found to have contravened the Members’ Integrity Act

    The Integrity Commissioner found that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing contravened section 2 (conflict of interest) and section 3(2) (insider information) of the Members’ Integrity Act, 1994 in relation to the Greenbelt land removals, and recommended that he be reprimanded. The Commissioner’s inquiry drew on evidence from 62 individuals.

    What it means for disabled kids

    Recorded here exactly as the Commissioner framed it, with the sections named and nothing added. This is what an established finding of contravention looks like - and it is the standard every other entry on this page is held to.

    Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario · Read the source document

15. Finding Auditor General of Ontario August 9, 2023

    Greenbelt site selection favoured certain landowners

    In a special report, the Auditor General found that the way the government assessed and selected lands for removal from the Greenbelt “was not publicly transparent, objective or well-informed,” and that “direct access to the Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff resulted in certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment.” Owners of the 15 land sites removed could ultimately see a collective $8.3 billion increase in the value of their properties.

    What it means for disabled kids

    We report this finding alongside the Auditor General’s special education findings from the same period, and draw no legal conclusion beyond what the Auditor General found in each. Readers can weigh the difference in scale for themselves.

    Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · Read the source document

16. On the record Legislative Assembly of Ontario June 8, 2023

    Provincial control over school boards expanded

    The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 2023 (Bill 98) received Royal Assent on June 8, 2023. It expanded ministerial authority over school boards, including provincial priority-setting, director of education accountability requirements, powers relating to board real estate and asset disposition, and an integrity commissioner regime for trustee conduct.

    What it means for disabled kids

    Read alongside Bill 33 and the 2025 board supervisions, this is a documented sequence: successive statutes moving authority over boards toward the Minister. We report the sequence and the dates. What it adds up to is for the reader to judge.

    Legislative Assembly of Ontario · Read the source document

17. Finding Ontario courts November 29, 2022

    The public-sector wage cap was found to infringe the Charter

    In Ontario English Catholic Teachers Assoc. v His Majesty, 2022 ONSC 6658, the Superior Court held that Bill 124’s compensation restraints infringed the freedom of association guaranteed by section 2(d) of the Charter and struck the Act down. The Court of Appeal upheld the finding of unconstitutionality in part in 2024 ONCA 101, released February 12, 2024, as it applied to represented employees. The government repealed Bill 124 in its entirety on February 23, 2024.

    What it means for disabled kids

    A measure applied across the public sector, including education, was found to breach a constitutional right and then repealed after years of litigation and remediation. It is the clearest available answer to the argument that legislating past a bargaining dispute is a cheap or clean option.

    Ontario Superior Court of Justice; Ontario Court of Appeal · Read the source document

18. Published proposal Policy institute November 22, 2022

    Fifty-seven of 1,445 Ontario independent schools emphasize special education

    Cardus published "Naturally Diverse: The Landscape of Independent Schools in Ontario" by David Hunt, Joanna DeJong VanHof and Jenisa Los - a typology of roughly 1,445 Ontario independent schools. As of July 2022 it counted 57 schools emphasizing special education, up from 45 in 2013-14. It counted 545 religious schools (37.7% of the sector) and 593 special-emphasis schools (41%), across 21 special-emphasis subtypes, of which the largest single group was Montessori at 155 schools.

    What it means for disabled kids

    This is the most useful number in the entire file, and it comes from an organization that supports funding independent schools. In each of the Ontario and Alberta proposals we identified, children with special education needs were the named opening case. They are served by roughly four percent of the schools that would benefit from the precedent - fewer than a third as many as teach Montessori.

    Cardus · Read the source document

19. On the record Legislative Assembly of Ontario November 3, 2022

    Ontario overrode the Human Rights Code to impose an education contract

    The Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022 (Bill 28) imposed a four-year contract on education workers, prohibited a strike, and provided for fines of up to $4,000 per day for an individual and $500,000 per day for the union. It pre-emptively invoked section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - the notwithstanding clause - and also overrode the Ontario Human Rights Code. The Act was repealed by the Keeping Students in Class Repeal Act, 2022 (Bill 35) on November 14, 2022, and deemed never to have been in force.

    What it means for disabled kids

    The accommodation rights that protect disabled students during a work stoppage sit in the Human Rights Code. In 2022 that Code was overridden by statute in this sector. It was reversed within two weeks - but it happened, and families planning for this round are entitled to know it happened.

    Legislative Assembly of Ontario · Read the source document

20. Finding Financial Accountability Office July 21, 2020

    Most of the money announced for autism was not paid out that year

    The Financial Accountability Office reported that of 270 million dollars in childhood budget and one-time autism funding for 2019-20, 97 million dollars was actually paid to about 8,100 families during the year, while 174 million dollars was recorded as an accrued expense for about 25,100 children whose families had not received payment by March 31, 2020. The FAO also estimated that eliminating the waitlist would cost roughly 1.4 billion dollars per year, and that a 600-million-dollar program would leave about 22,900 children waiting.

    What it means for disabled kids

    Announced funding and delivered funding are different numbers. Families were counted as served in the province’s books before the money reached them. This is why we track paid enrolment rather than announcements.

    Financial Accountability Office of Ontario · Read the source document

21. Published proposal Policy institute March 2, 2020

    Special-needs students named as a route to expanding independent schooling

    Cardus published "Toward a More Diverse and Resilient Education Sector" by David Hunt, addressing Alberta. Among its recommendations for removing enrolment barriers, it advises government to "target additional financial resources to expanding independent-school options for special-needs students," alongside a mobility benefit for low-income families and faster approvals for new independent schools.

    What it means for disabled kids

    This one addresses Alberta, not Ontario, and we flag that rather than blur it. It is included because it shows the same population named in the same role in a second province, by the same institute. Note that Alberta has funded independent schools since 1967 - the special-education designation there came long after general funding, not before it.

    Cardus · Read the source document

22. Published proposal Policy institute March 20, 2019

    A proposal to send special education funding to independent schools

    Cardus published "Funding Fairness for Students in Ontario with Special Education Needs" by Deani Van Pelt, Ray Pennings and Taylor Jackson. It proposes that students with special education needs attending independent schools receive either 75% or 50% of the per-pupil special education funding provided to public school students, arguing that "services for a child's disability should be based on need and not on the school the child attends." Cardus costed the proposal at $78 million to $195 million per year at the 75% level, and $52 million to $130 million at the 50% level. The paper states that the 75% figure "has also previously been proposed by Hepburn and Mrozek in their 2004 paper" - the Fraser Institute's "Let the Funding Follow the Children."

    What it means for disabled kids

    Students with special education needs are the specific population for which public funding of independent schools has been proposed in Ontario, at a costing well under a sector-wide programme. We previously read a sequencing strategy into that and have withdrawn it - the legislative history of every province that funds independent schools runs the other way. What remains is the composition problem: on Cardus’s own later count, only 57 of roughly 1,445 Ontario independent schools emphasize special education.

    Cardus · Read the source document