The Ontario Provincial Police force has concluded an investigation into reported
financial irregularities
at Renfrew Victoria Hospital with no charges laid.
A spokesperson for the OPP confirmed that the investigation launched last year by its anti-rackets branch is now closed. The anti-rackets branch investigates complex financial crimes.
“The OPP conducted a thorough investigation in response to reported irregularities. These matters were carefully examined and the investigation has now concluded. No charges have been laid,” the corporate communications bureau said in a written statement.
Closure of the investigation comes just months after a provincially appointed supervisor filed a
report
citing “a series of irregular transactions and practices involving certain former executives” at the hospital over more than a decade.
Altaf Stationwala, who is president and CEO of Mackenzie Health in the GTA, was appointed by the province in 2024 to look into financial practices at Renfrew Victoria Hospital and to help strengthen governance.
He concluded that a lack of sound governance and standard checks and balances contributed to a culture of misguided spending of millions of public dollars at RVH. That spending “came at a loss to the community that could have benefited from the investment of these funds into expanded healthcare services.”
Former board chairs
defended
the hospital following the release of the report earlier this year.
Some of the irregular transactions cited in Stationwala’s report involved Renfrew Health, a non-profit organization created by former hospital executives. Between 2014 and 2023, RVH quietly transferred $11.7 million in surplus hospital funds to Renfrew Health, according to Canada Revenue Agency records. Some of that was later returned to the hospital.
During that period, the report said, RVH underinvested in resources that would have improved access to care at the hospital.
Among other things, the report found that the hospital spent nearly $3 million in executive compensation over 11 years through Renfrew Health, despite the fact the executives receiving the compensation had no “demonstrated roles or accountabilities” within the not-for-profit organization.
Stationwala’s investigation also found that a former CEO received more than $1.6 million in compensation on top of their hospital salary in addition to a $1-million interest-free
loan
to purchase and renovate personal property.
The report detailed improper use of credit cards “by certain former RVH executives.” A former CEO spent more than $170,000 over six years using company credit cards. Only nine per cent of those expenses were supported by receipts and invoices. Personal expenses, such as home internet, travel, cash advances and health-related expenses were charged to company credit cards. Stationwala wrote that the level of reimbursement back to the hospital is unclear “given lack of receipts and financial practices.”
The hospital’s compensation practices became the “operating norm” over time, he wrote. “This was understood as the way things were done at RVH.”
The Citizen has previously reported that the financial practices came during a period when staff members were being told that money was tight for new expenses, including additional staff.
The province launched an investigation and appointed the supervisor after being approached by a group of citizens who raised concerns about the financial practices between the hospital and Renfrew Health. They were concerned the transfer of millions of dollars from the hospital to Renfrew Health was inappropriate and did not comply with reporting requirements.
Stationwala did not name any of the former executives cited in the report, but he stressed that “no current active members of the RVH executive team are part of these irregularities nor were any current board of directors involved in initiating these irregularities.”
