Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals knew last year they were “not on track” to meet deficit targets key to reaching a balanced budget promised by 2018, according to documents revealed by the Progressive Conservatives.

“The premier was told flat out her plan to balance the budget was a phony plan,” Conservative Leader Tim Hudak told a news conference Monday, citing Ministry of Finance papers.

“Kathleen Wynne is actually lying,” he charged.

The papers reveal for the fiscal years ending in 2015 and 2016 that the minority government was $4.5 bllion behind deficit reduction targets set in 2012, which raises doubts about the Liberals’ plan to slay Ontario’s deficit.

That will undermine the confidence of potential investors, Hudak charged.

“They’ve been misleading taxpayers and that’s going to cost us jobs,” he warned.

In the legislature’s first daily question period since last week’s March school break, Wynne told Hudak he was off base and that the documents were prepared as part of the financial planning process.

“We are constantly updating numbers,” Wynne said, attacking Hudak for a “radical and risky approach” of promised cuts to get Ontario’s finances under control.

The documents, obtained by the Conservatives through the legislature’s estimates committee, blamed lower-than-expected revenues and noted that making the gap “fully disappear requires aggressive spending restraint and/or revenue tools.”

That means hold on to your wallet, Hudak said, pointing to the possibility of “non-tax revenue proposals (multiple)” cited in the documents.

The shortfalls were identified as $1.9 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal year starting this April 1 and $2.6 billion the following year. The figures came with a warning from senior bureaucrats in the Finance Ministry that there are “no plans in place to achieve out-year deficit targets from 2012 budget.”

A spokeswoman for Finance Minister Charles Sousa said the documents were prepared as part of crafting last year’s budget, which was delivered last May 2.

The government is still targeting a balanced budget by the 2017-2018 fiscal and “nothing has changed on that front,” press secretary Susie Health told the Star.

This year’s deficit is expected to be $11.7 billion and no date has been set for a spring budget, raising questions as to whether the Liberals are delaying to do a deal with the NDP or postpone a possible spring election, Hudak said.

Since 2000, eight budgets have been delivered in March, five in May and one in June. Wynne has said her spring budget will include a “transparent” plan to raise money for expanded public transit END.

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The papers say the government will have to cut its pension expenses — an initiative that is already underway — and notes it is banking on an expansion of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, including a GTA casino, to bring in an extra $1 billion a year by 2017-2018.

No site for a GTA casino has been found given opposition from several municipalities and fast-rising costs of hosting the Pan Am Games in 2015 do not appear to be factored in, said Conservative finance critic Vic Fedeli (North Bay).

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