Canada’s auditor general is taking issue with the quality of health care in remote First Nations communities, lacklustre efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and the dearth of oversight governing boutique tax credits — the Conservative government’s election bauble of choice. Many of the findings in Michael Ferguson’s spring report to Parliament touch on some key planks of the government’s likely election platform — protecting Canadians and cutting their taxes — while exposing more shortcomings in how the country’s aboriginal population is treated. “We are concerned that the issues we are seeing today may be the symptoms of bigger problems in the future if they are not addressed quickly,” Ferguson said in a statement. “It is important for departments to focus on addressing these issues promptly, to avoid bigger problems which will cost more to fix down the road, in terms of time, money and effort.” Ferguson’s audit found that despite their big-ticket status, tax-based expenditures — boutique tax credit measures such as the children’s fitness tax credit, for example — are not properly evaluated or subject to adequate oversight by Parliament.

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