Auditor general reports on avian flu vaccines, First Nations funding

OTTAWA — Two federal watchdogs released five audits Monday, including probes into federal workplace accessibility and avian flu.

Here are some of the highlights:

Indigenous Services Canada failed to monitor funding for First Nations

A report from auditor general Karen Hogan found that Indigenous Services Canada failed to effectively implement, monitor or assess funding for First Nations.

The report looked at measures introduced under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who made resetting Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples a priority for his government.

The audit found that more than $6.5 billion has been provided to First Nations and First Nations-led organizations through 10-year grants, but the government didn’t consistently monitor whether recipients remained eligible for continued funding. The audit also said the department didn’t assess whether the grants were helping address inequities between First Nations and other Canadians.

The report found that of the 36 grants where monitoring reports were required, only 14 had annual updates on financial performance. The report said some First Nations couldn’t provide their audited financial statements on time because of limited administrative and financial capacity and access to auditors.

Without audited financial statements from each grant recipient, the report said, Indigenous Services Canada didn’t have complete information on grant recipients’ financial performance.

Public servants faced delays when making accommodation requests

Another report looked into federal workplace accessibility at seven organizations, including the Canada Revenue Agency and Shared Services Canada.

The report found that while the representation of employees with disabilities increased overall, the organizations didn’t have effective processes in place to manage accommodation requests. The average time departments took to issue responses ranged from 24 days to 310 days, it said.

The average wait time for requests to be closed at the Canada School of Public Service was 24 days, compared to 77 days at Shared Services Canada, 169 days at Public Services and Procurement Canada and 310 at the Canada Revenue Agency.

The report said the organizations had inconsistent data collection practices for accommodation requests and that organizations that had goals or tracked timeliness were quicker to provide responses.

The auditor general recommended the organizations review their accommodation processes in consultation with people with disabilities to tackle the delays.

Public Health Agency let 95 per cent of avian influenza vaccines expire

In another report, the auditor general’s office looked at Canada’s management of the avian influenza outbreak.

That outbreak has led to the deaths of some 17.3 million commercial birds since December 2021 — either as a result of the highly contagious virus or due to culls by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The auditor is calling on the Public Health Agency of Canada to better manage its supply of vaccines after finding the agency bought far too many doses and allowed 95 per cent of them to expire.

PHAC made a decision to buy 800,000 doses of the avian flu vaccine in June 2024 with no analysis of how many shots it might need, and it went ahead with a purchase of 500,000 shots.

Six months later, after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization published guidance on at-risk populations (including farmers and veterinarians), PHAC calculated it would need 300,000 doses and decided to keep 200,000 in reserve. It bought another 370,000 doses in March 2025 as a precautionary measure.

All the vaccines expired in February and 95 per cent of them were never used.

Universal Ostrich Farm near Edgewood, B.C., was ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to cull approximately 400 birds after an outbreak of the highly contagious avian flu was discovered on the farm in late 2024.

Asked at a press conference Monday why there was no mention of the B.C. ostrich farm in the report, environment commissioner Jerry DeMarco said the sample included a number of sites whose files were opened and closed during the audit period.

“That file was still quite active by the time that our audit was over, so it was not possible to include that one during this audit,” he said.

Federal government falling behind on flood mapping

Another report said federal efforts to map parts of the country that are most at risk of flooding are not on track to be finished by the 2028 target and don’t account for the effects of climate change.

The report found that the flood risk awareness portal under development at the Public Safety Department does not consider how climate change is affecting flood patterns.

The audit also looked at efforts to map high-risk flood areas at the Natural Resources department. The department identified 200 areas at high risk of flooding in 2022, but less than half of the maps now include those high-risk flood zones.

The report recommended creating user-friendly, interactive flood maps to ensure people can prepare, and says the government needs to work with provinces and territories to monitor high-risk areas.

Oversight of federal climate strategy had gaps

Another report found that the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s oversight of a federal climate strategy had “significant gaps.”

The report looked into the Greening Government Strategy, which sought to get departments and agencies to assess and reduce climate change risks by 2022. When that didn’t happen, the report said the government in 2024 pushed back commitments to 2035 and later, without any interim targets.

The audit found that the Treasury Board Secretariat had a weak system to measure and track progress and that it failed to report publicly during the strategy’s first eight years. It said the lack of reporting made it difficult for people to track progress and for decision makers to see where further efforts were needed.

The audit also found that National Defence, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada were slow to improve their climate resilience.

The report said the lack of progress on climate resilience undermines the protection of federal assets, like bridges, roads and buildings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.

—With files from Sarah Ritchie

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press