Stephen Holyday, a staunch conservative-minded councillor at city hall, is blasting Premier Doug Ford for telling what he calls “half-truths” about the city’s audit process.

Holyday, whose father represented the Etobicoke Centre ward before him and who was one of the Fords’ closest allies, issued the statement Wednesday night after Ford criticized the city and council in media interviews and on social media.

The statement is the latest in a war between the city and the province over budget cuts introduced mid-year by Ford’s government without consultation. The cuts would leave a gap this year, the city says, of $178 million. By law, the city must balance its budget. It also follows Mayor John Tory and other councillors leading a public campaign opposing the sudden cuts.

In a CP24 interview on Wednesday, Ford claimed the city has ignored recommendations from the city’s auditor general.

“Their own auditor came in ... and said there was 228 recommendations to find money and they ignored all 228,” he said.

As chair of the city’s audit committee, Holyday rejected the implication by Ford that the city was doing little to act on the suggestions to save money.

“Earlier today public comments were made by the Premier of Ontario regarding outstanding audit findings from Toronto’s Auditor General,” Holyday’s statement said. “While factually correct, these statements have omitted important context, making them half-truths.

“While the work is ongoing, and there will always be additional audit savings and benefits to be found, any suggestion that the system is not working is misleading and damaging.”

Holyday said there are 227 outstanding findings from the auditor as of May 14 that would lead to “financial or non-financial benefits.” Council, he said, has accepted and directed staff to make the changes but they have not yet been fully implemented.

“From 2,448 audit findings since inception, 60 remain outstanding for five years or longer,” Holyday said, noting 91 per cent of the audit recommendations have been implemented.

A total of $35.8 million was identified in savings by staff as part of the 2019 budget process, he added.

During his appearance on CP24, Ford made other false claims about the city’s finances.

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For example, he repeated a long-standing claim that the Fords’ saved taxpayers $1 billion during the administration of his late brother, former mayor Rob Ford.

Top city staff, who for a time perpetuated the claim, later admitted it was “misleading” after several reporters debunked that several of the “savings” were not in fact savings.

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