Good decisions require good information.

That is the conclusion Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter reached in an at-times damning 2011 Annual Report, released on Monday.

In it, McCarter points to a disturbing trend that sees a number of provincial ministries suffering from a lack of “meaningful and reliable information.”

Highlights of McCarter’s findings include:

• Since 2002, consumers have paid a special debt retirement charge on their monthly electricity bill that was intended to pay off $7.8 billion in the “residual stranded debt” of the old Ontario Hydro. Since then, consumers have paid $8 billion, but the minister of finance has never provided a public update on how much of the debt remains – even though the Electricity Act requires the minister to do this “from time to time.” This issue has been raised by opposition members in the past – to no avail. Earlier this year, it was estimated that the debt retirement charge on hydro bills may continue until 2018.

• Ontarians pay significantly more for auto insurance than any other Canadians due to high accident claim costs. However, the commission that oversees the auto insurance sector does not know whether insurers are handling claims judiciously and paying out the proper amounts, and it needs better information on the impact of auto insurance fraud on claim costs. Clearly, there is no incentive for government to get tougher on insurance fraud while its impact remains unknown.

• On a per capita basis, Ontario spends more on legal aid than any other province but provides the fewest number of low-income residents with dedicated legal representation. As a result, more people have to rely on Legal Aid Ontario’s website and courtroom duty counsel. Legal Aid Ontario does not have the information needed to assess the impact of this on the legal needs of low-income people. Can there truly be justice in a system that does not provide for those who can’t afford legal representation? Also, where is all the legal aid money in Ontario being spent?

• The Ontario Trillium Foundation provides more than $100 million a year in grants to not-for-profit and charitable groups. While it has a well-defined grant review and approval process, the supporting documentation often could not demonstrate that the most worthy projects were funded for reasonable amounts and that the funds were spent for the intended purpose.

• Five years ago, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities stopped collecting data from the province’s 470 private career colleges on graduation rates and post-graduation employment success. We think that a small investment in this kind of data has the potential to pay dividends by steering students toward successful programs and away from those that translate into careers less often.

To view the entire Auditor General’s 2011 Annual Report, visit www.auditor.on.ca.