Ontario may need to throw out millions of dollars in PPE: auditor general

Millions of dollars’ worth of surgical and N95 masks may end up in the trash over the next five years, according to the province’s auditor general, as the Ford government continues to honour pandemic-era contracts for personal protective equipment that’s led to an oversupply.

During the height of COVID-19, the Ford government signed long-term contracts with Ontario manufacturers for desperately needed masks for front-line health-care workers.

The agreements, according to Auditor General Shelley Spence, included purchase commitments that were designed to sustain made-in-Ontario production and reduce reliance on the hyper-competitive global supply chain.

While the province looked to dramatically increase its stockpile at the time, the auditor found that “the potential for a decline in demand was not a primary consideration” by the Ford government.

Since then, the province has continued to purchase millions of masks but has only distributed a fraction of them — potentially leading to waste between 2025 and 2030 unless the need increases.

• Surgical masks:
  • The auditor found the province purchased 188 million surgical masks in 2024-25, but only distributed 39 million, or 21 per cent of the annual purchase.
• N95 masks:
  • The auditor found the province purchased 25 million N95 masks in 2024-25, but only distributed 5.5 million, or 22 per cent of the annual purchase.

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The auditor found that if mask use remains at the same levels, the province will be forced to dispose of 376 million surgical masks and 86 million N95 masks, which are set to expire before the end of the decade.

The auditor estimated that approximately $126 million of taxpayer funds would be wasted as a result.

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“If purchase commitments must be maintained to satisfy the policies of protecting public health and supporting local production, and Supply Ontario does not increase its distribution of PPE, waste will likely continue to occur,” the report states.

The report also found the Ford government has already had to write off $1.4 billion of its PPE stockpile that accumulated between 2021 and 2025.

While more than one billion items have already been disposed of, the auditor found another 688 million units of PPE are now “unusable” because they are expired, damaged or obsolete.

The auditor also raised concerns about the province’s disposal method, which has focused on incineration rather than recycling, which other provinces have relied on.

Ontario uses a “waste-to-energy approach” that burns expired PPE and converts the heat into energy — a method that the auditor said contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

“While incineration results in less waste than sending PPE to landfills, it releases pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere,” the report found.