Ontario wrote off $1.4 billion of personal protective equipment, auditor finds

TORONTO — Ontario’s auditor general says the province has written off $1.4 billion of personal protective equipment since 2021.

Shelley Spence has found the province continues to purchase masks, gowns and other protective gear at the same levels as the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, despite significantly declining demand.

Ontario had a critical shortage of protective gear during the pandemic, especially in the early days when demand was unprecedented and much of the province’s inventory of stockpiled PPE had already expired.

The province created Supply Ontario to manage the stockpile, but Spence has found it does not have a system that can properly track the gear.

Spence says Supply Ontario now incinerates expired PPE and converts it to heat energy rather than recycling it like British Columbia does.

The auditor general says despite the vast amount of PPE, only two per cent of the items go to hospitals, which say the province cannot meet their needs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2025.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press