The auditor general just released nine reports — here are the highlights

OTTAWA — Auditor General Karen Hogan’s office tabled nine reports Thursday in the House of Commons. They include a report tracking government agencies’ progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing a ban on exports of thermal coal.

The new reports also evaluated efforts to reduce health and environmental risks from pesticides, manage the Canadian Dental Care Plan and oversee the national emergency stockpile.

Other audits examined the activities of Canada’s anti-money laundering centre, the Canadian Armed Forces’ management of ammunition and the federal border agency’s collection of customs duties and taxes.

One report assessed how several agencies managed procurement and contracts at selected call centre systems.

Here’s a quick rundown of the findings:

Fintrac needs to move faster

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, the federal watchdog that helps law enforcement tackle money laundering and other financial crimes, is mired in delays caused in part by its IT systems.

The audit said it took Fintrac an average of about four months to get financial intelligence into the hands of law enforcement — and that half the time, the information arrived too late to be useful to investigations.

Canada dropped work on banning thermal coal exports

Environment and Climate Change Canada abandoned its work on ending thermal coal exports without ever notifying the public and without any record of being directed to do so.

The audit found that, despite the federal government’s promise in 2021 to end thermal coal exports by 2030, officials at Environment Canada stopped that work altogether in November 2024 after lobbying from the coal industry, and without any official direction from Ottawa.

Public Health Agency lost more than $20 million in pharmaceuticals

Hogan looked into an incident reported on by The Canadian Press in February: a freezer door left ajar caused the Public Health Agency of Canada to lose more than $20 million worth of pharmaceutical products from the national stockpile in 2024.

She said the agency investigated the incident and came up with an action plan nine months later, but some key contributing factors remained unaddressed, including freezer capacity and the temperature monitoring system.

Shared Services call centre contract went way over budget

An attempt by Shared Services Canada to modernize government call centres went three times over budget, with costs amounting to $52 million.

The audit said a flaw in the procurement process threw the whole project out of whack. It said the department never revised its project solicitation, despite multiple warnings from bidders and internal advisers.

“An error in the costing information required bidders not to account for the full cost of data storage across call centres. Although Shared Services Canada was aware of the issue, it did not correct it, choosing instead to amend the contract after it was issued to change how data storage fees would be calculated,” the report said.

Rollbacks left Canada off-track to meet 2030 emissions target

This finding isn’t entirely new. Canada’s environment commissioner and numerous climate groups have warned that Canada is not on track to meet its emissions targets.

But the audit report said one of the measures to cut emissions — the government’s Low‑carbon Fuel Procurement Program — ended four years earlier than initially planned because of supply issues.

Canadian Dental Plan went over-budget

Hogan also reported the government hasn’t been able to state whether the Canadian Dental Plan has improved the oral health of Canadians over time.

While Health Canada covered a budget shortfall by moving funding between fiscal years, Hogan said that’s only a temporary solution.

She reported that anticipated Canadian Dental Plan payments for the 2026-27 to 2031-32 period “are expected to exceed the funding currently available.”

Border services program was inefficient

Hogan found the Canada Border Services Agency’s Assessment and Revenue Management system works effectively but inefficiently.

CARM is the digital portal and accounting system used by the border agency to assess and collect duties and taxes on commercial imports.

Hogan reported the agency underestimated the money CARM needed, leaving it with a funding shortfall of tens of millions of dollars. The system also doesn’t work as intended, requires dozens of workarounds and has a backlog of 4,000 assistance requests.

“The agency expects to spend at least 92,000 hours per year of employee time on navigating through workarounds to assess and collect customs duties and taxes,” the report said.

Praise for Health Canada’s work on pesticides

Hogan praised Health Canada’s work on reducing public health risks from pesticides, though she noted the agency still has to establish criteria for determining actions to be taken if pesticides exceed levels safe for human health.

“Health Canada established and implemented the Canadian Water Monitoring Program for Pesticides in 2024. The program is a contributor to Canada’s international commitment to reduce the overall risk from pesticides by 2030,” the report said.

“We found that Health Canada implemented the program as intended.”

National Defence is managing its ammunition poorly

Hogan’s report warned that National Defence “did not manage its ammunition to meet its regular-use and strategic stockpile needs.”

The report said the department lacked “reliable information” on its inventory and it flagged “significant gaps” between ammunition needs and the actual inventory levels in the strategic stockpile.

“Although National Defence has started replenishing the stockpile, continued attention over several years will be needed to address these gaps,” the report said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press