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The auditor general released another scathing report on Liberal accounting practices

While the Livingston trial was underway, Ontario’s auditor-general released yet another scathing report on Liberal accounting practices. Bonnie Lysyk noted that Wynne’s government borrowed $26 billion in new debt to finance its “Fair Hydro Plan,” a subsidy scheme to cut the province’s soaring hydro costs in the lead-up to the election. The government wants to claim that it has balanced the budget — a key promise it hopes will win votes — but needed to keep the $26 billion off the books to do so. Its remedy was to borrow through Ontario Power Generation, the provincial energy utility, which will have to pay off the money with higher rates down the road.

The debt remains, and will fall on the shoulders of the same taxpayers, but thanks to accounting rules won’t have to be included on the bottom line come budget time. “The government created a needlessly complex accounting/financing structure for the electricity rate reduction in order to avoid showing a deficit or an increase in net debt,” said Lysyk. In addition, since OPG can’t borrow at the same low rates as the government, Ontarians will face an additional $4 billion in borrowing charges.

The government dismissed the report, as it has done with numerous critical reports from the independent bodies that monitor its finances. Judging by the Liberals’ history, none of the official bodies set up to act as nonpartisan monitors of government activity can be trusted to get things right. They fought an extended war with the former provincial ombudsman, Andre Marin. They have habitually ignored warnings from the Financial Accountability Office, which reported last week that the Liberals can’t hope to keep their budget promises without higher taxes or dramatically reduced spending. And they regularly wave off Lysyk’s criticisms as accounting gobbledygook.