Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk will release her full report on Laurentian University’s finances on Nov. 17.
The auditor general’s office made this announcement Tuesday afternoon through a media advisory posted on its website.
The document will be available publicly on the auditor general’s website once it’s tabled in the Ontario legislature at around 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Embargoed copies of the report are being provided to accredited media by request. The auditor general is also holding a press conference on the matter at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
A scathing preliminary report on Laurentian released by Lysyk in April said she believes LU did not have to file for creditor protection in early 2021, and the action was “strategically planned.”
Laurentian board chair Jeff Bangs said last spring that the preliminary report on Laurentian was “not entirely correct,” and the university was co-operating with Lysyk on her full report.
The now former Laurentian president Robert Haché stuck to his guns after the report’s release, saying the university did what it could to advocate to government for financial support, and only turned to filing for creditor protection as a last resort.
Lysyk was tasked with a value-for-money audit of Laurentian University’s finances by the legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts last year.
However, in a situation that became national news, Laurentian refused to provide privileged (confidential) information to Lysyk’s audit team, saying they did not have to do so under provincial legislation.
Due to this dispute, Lysyk asked the courts for an interpretation of what is allowed for under the Auditor General Act. In January, a judge ruled that the act does not give AG the right to see privileged documents.
However, Laurentian did end up later having to hand over most of the requested documents after the legislature issued a rare Speaker’s Warrant.
Lysyk appealed the court decision regarding the privileged documents, with the hearing on that matter having been heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal earlier today (Nov. 15). Check back to Sudbury.com for coverage of the appeal hearing.
