The Auditor General
Shelley Spence, CPA, CA, LPA
Auditor General of Ontario
On January 8, 2024, Shelley Spence took office as the 14th Auditor General of Ontario. She is appointed for a 10-year term by the Legislative Assembly after being unanimously recommended by a bi-partisan panel of MPPs in December 2023.
She brings over thirty years of professional experience in audit, oversight and governance in the public sector. She was most recently Partner with Deloitte LLP, where she spent over six years helping oversee the Canadian Government and Public Service Assurance practice. She has consulted for hundreds of public and private sector clients, with extensive experience at federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as agencies, government business enterprises and the broader public sector. She has presented frequently at conferences, webinars and forums on topics of interest to government finance professionals.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Shelley had a 20-year track record of success as an entrepreneur running her own accounting practice. She was frequently engaged by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario to assist with auditing the province’s public accounts and performance audits, and also helped perform the first two reviews of the pre-election report.
Shelley is currently a member of the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors, and over the years, has actively participated in many professional and volunteer not-for-profit organizations.
Born in Saskatchewan, Shelley grew up in Alberta and graduated from the University of Alberta on the Dean’s list with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She obtained her Chartered Accountant designation at KPMG.
Shelley is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant and Licensed Public Accountant.
Previous Auditors General
Bonnie Lysyk became the 13th Auditor General of Ontario on September 3, 2013, after having previously served as Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan, and Deputy Auditor General and Chief Operating Officer of Manitoba.
Lysyk has held senior positions in both the private and public sectors during a 30-year career spent in three provinces. She has extensive audit, finance, risk management and governance experience.
She served as the Deputy Auditor General and Chief Operating Officer for the Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba and, most recently, as Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan. She also held a variety of senior roles at Manitoba Hydro and served as Chief Audit Executive of the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission.
A native of Winnipeg, Lysyk graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Administrative Studies (Honours) degree and subsequently obtained her designation as a Chartered Accountant while working with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). She also has a Masters in Business Administration and is a Certified Internal Auditor. In 2017, she was named a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario.
Lysyk is currently a member of the Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors and over the years has actively participated in many professional and volunteer not-for-profit organizations. She has also taught auditing courses in Toronto and overseas.
The 2020 Distinguished Leader Award from Brock University’s Goodman School of Business was awarded to Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk.
Read Bonnie Lysyk’s reflections on her 10 years as Auditor General.
Jim McCarter served as Ontario’s 12th Auditor General from October 2003 to April 2013.
During his tenure, Jim issued 10 annual reports, along with 13 special reports and reviews on a diverse range of high-profile issues that included Citizenship and Immigration year-end grants (2007), eHealth (2009), ORNGE air ambulance service (2012), and the cost of cancelling the partially-constructed power plant in Mississauga (2013).
Just as significantly, it was during Mr. McCarter’s tenure that the Office took on three significant new mandates — value-for-money auditing of organizations in the broader public sector, review of government advertising, and review of the government’s pre-election fiscal outlook reports.
Prior to becoming Auditor General, Mr. McCarter spent almost four years as Assistant Provincial Auditor, and he was the Government of Ontario’s first Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Internal Auditor from 1998 to 2000.
He was also Auditor General of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean on behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency in 1989 and 1990.
Mr. McCarter, a chartered accountant, holds an MBA degree from York University and a Certified Information Systems Auditor designation. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO) in 2009.
Erik Peters obtained his CA designation in 1965. Between 1960 and 1992, he worked for Price Waterhouse, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Alcan Aluminum, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was appointed to the position of Provincial Auditor in 1993. Mr. Peters was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO) in 1994 and of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta in 2002. Mr. Peters was the year 2000 recipient of the ICAO’s Award of Outstanding Merit for conspicuous and sustained service to the profession and the broader community.
Jim Otterman assumed the duties of Provincial Auditor in 1992 and continued in the role until the time that Erik Peters was appointed Provincial Auditor in 1993.
Douglas Archer, a graduate of the University of Toronto, joined the provincial government with the Department of Health in 1966. Mr. Archer came to the Office of the Provincial Auditor in 1971 as Director of the Crown Agency Audit Branch. He was made Director of Public Accounts in 1974 and was appointed Assistant Provincial Auditor in 1978. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1982, the same year he was appointed Provincial Auditor.
Norman Scott’s career in the public service started with the Ontario Department of Labour in 1940. A year later, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and spent the next four years overseas. He returned to the Department of Labour after the war and then joined the Office of the Provincial Auditor in 1952. He was appointed Assistant Provincial Auditor in 1973 and Provincial Auditor in 1974. Mr. Scott was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1979.
William Groom was educated at the University of Toronto and McMaster University and joined the Office in 1956. He left for the Department of Social and Family Services where, by 1969, he became Executive Director of Social Development Services. Mr. Groom returned to the Office in 1971 as Assistant Provincial Auditor. He was appointed Provincial Auditor in 1973. Mr. Groom’s career was cut short when he and his wife were killed in a highway accident on July 21, 1973.
George Spence came from a distinguished old Toronto family and was the son of senator James Spence. A graduate of Commerce and Finance from the University of Toronto, he received his CA designation in 1938 and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1953. He was appointed Assistant Provincial Auditor in 1941 and Provincial Auditor in 1963.
Harvey Cotnam was born on a farm near Pembroke, Ontario and later attended McGill University in Montreal, where he graduated in 1925 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. The following year he became a chartered accountant. He started with the Treasury Department as an accountant in 1933. In 1935, he became Assistant Provincial Auditor and was Acting Provincial Auditor during Gordon Brown’s illness (1937). He was appointed to the position of Provincial Auditor in 1938. Mr. Cotnam was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1950.
Gordon Brown joined the Office of the Provincial Auditor in 1898. He worked his way up through the ranks from Clerk to Chief Audit Clerk before he was appointed to the position of Provincial Auditor in 1920.
James Clancy was born in Canada West in 1844. As a young man, he had been a farmer and lumberman in Wallaceburg, Ontario. He eventually ran for reeve of Chatham Township and won in 1882. The following year and on two other occasions he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Twice elected to the House of Commons, he was defeated in 1904. Clancy was appointed Provincial Auditor in 1905.
Charles Sproule started as a junior clerk in the Treasury in 1867. Then he served as bookkeeper under the Auditor William Cayley until Cayley retired in 1877. At that time, the Treasurer S.C. Wood recommended that Sproule be appointed the new Auditor of the Audit Branch. With the introduction of the 1886 Audit Act, Sproule was appointed the first official Provincial Auditor of Ontario.
Prior to his appointment to the position of Auditor in 1869, William Cayley had served seven years as Inspector General of Accounts in several pre-Confederation administrations. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1807 and educated in England, Cayley emigrated to Canada in 1836. Two years later, he was called to the bar of Upper Canada. In 1846, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Canada where he continued to serve as a member until he retired from political life in 1861.
Voluntary Expense Disclosures