The day after promising open and transparent government, the Liberals were still trying Tuesday to block the release of Pan Am documents to a legislative committee probing the cost of the 2015 Toronto games.

But the Liberals on the estimates committee were finally outmanoeuvred after weeks of stalling, resulting in a decision directing the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport to release all Pan Am documents from Jan. 1, 2010 to Oct. 3, 2013 to the committee.

“They are clearly worried we are going to find something. The fact they have been filibustering for 20 days and tried to do it again today tells me there is something they don’t want us to see,” Tory MPP Rod Jackson (Barrie) told the Star.

With great fanfare, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Monday a blue-ribbon panel led by Ottawa academic Don Lenihan — and including former Tory cabinet minister Norm Sterling — to look at ways to make government data easier to find, understand, and use as well as increase public engagement.

The Tory motion calling for the documents is similar to what the Progressive Conservatives did in order to get inside information on the Liberal government’s decision to close gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville at a potential cost of $1.1 billion.

A government spokesperson said Liberal committee members were trying only to refine the search parameters to cut down on the thousands of documents expected, but finally agreed to a longer time to produce the documents.

The Progressive Conservatives are lining up behind other critics saying the only way TO2015 can make its $1.44 billion budget is to off-load costs to host municipalities, such as Milton with the velodrome, or hide cost overruns in other budgets.

“I think we are seeing an organization that has run amok,” said Jackson, adding the buck stops with Sport Minister Michael Chan.

A Pan Am spokesperson said the cost of the velodrome was set at $56 million on Nov. 15, 2012, with the Town of Milton kicking in $17 million. And that, he said, hasn’t changed.

In recent weeks the Pan Am games have been under a microscope, first because it was discovered that executive members were running up questionable expenses and then because of news that 64 employees with TO2015 stand to share $7 million in potential bonus money — in some cases up to 200 per cent of their salaries.

Chan, who appeared before the committee Tuesday, was asked by Jackson if the government would force TO2015 board members as well as senior executives to pay back the money on questionable expenses. The minister refused to answer but later told the Star they expenses are still being investigated.

Jackson noted that in an audit of the TO2015 supplied the committee that “bad faith expenses” were known as early as October 2012, despite the fact the Premier Kathleen Wynne and Chan said they only knew about them little more than a month ago.

Jackson cited a few examples: $27,000 for housing hunting and relocation fees; $342 and $330 for dry cleaning, parking; $980 for a membership to a personal development and networking organization; $550 for incidentals incurred while on vacation by a board member; $1,000 for magazine subscriptions; $7 for a bottle of water, $1,003, Fairmont Acapulco Princess Hotel and $744.56 for undisclosed medical expenses by TO2015 CEO Ian Troop.

“And expense forms were received from 17 people on the TO2015 board, and 13 filed expense claims without receipts. I would submit that none of us sitting around this table could do that,” he said to Chan.

Correction - October 23, 2013: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the Milton velodrome is over budget.

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