Article content continued

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Wynne is ignoring opposition calls to fire her current energy minister, Glenn Thibeault, over a critical report on the government’s smart meter program and patronizing comments he made about the auditor general.

Undaunted, Lysyk soldiered on, issuing a charge this week that seems finally to have hit home. Just days before an election is to be called, the auditor general delivered a report indicating the government’s budget figures can’t be trusted. They’ve been fiddled so badly with accounting tricks that the conclusions can’t be treated as valid. The deficit won’t be $6.7 billion as claimed, it will be $11.7 billion, says Lysyk. It will be another $12 billion next year, and the year after that.

Ontarians were already showing signs of alarm at the flood of borrowed money flowing through the Liberals’ hands. To be told they didn’t know the half of it can’t help but come as one more unwelcome surprise. Their consternation can only be increased by the fact an independent watchdog would feel worried enough to openly accuse the province’s elected leadership of such blatantly dishonest shenanigans.

Not only did the Liberals cook the books, Lysyk reported, they did their best to hide it from her

Not only did the Liberals cook the books, Lysyk reported, they did their best to hide it from her. “The government knew we would have an issue with this accounting,” she reported. “And there was intent to keep us out of the picture.”

“They took a risk and fortunately, I would say, for all the legislators and for the citizens, my staff is pretty strong and we figured out what was going on.”