Evoking the spirit of the Grinch, the Ontario government announced Tuesday it will eliminate 13 broader sector public service agencies and ban frills such as golf memberships, season’s tickets and payment for travel without receipts.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan was unsure of exactly how much money will actually be saved — as the government does not have a list of who has season’s tickets or golf memberships — and they have yet to figure out which agencies will get the axe.

“There is no public money for executive luxuries,” Duncan said in a lunch speech at the Canadian Club.

Every time Ontario’s auditor general inspects one of these agencies, he often finds these unacceptable expenses, Duncan said. “Every auditor’s report, we find these goofy things,” he said, adding iPods shouldn’t be given away at a time when “we are struggling valiantly to get our deficit under control.”

The moves are meant to take a bite out of Ontario’s $18.7 billion deficit but the Progressive Conservatives argue the Liberals have had seven years to make these efficiencies but have failed to act until now.

The Liberals have been under fire for allowing what the opposition calls “runaway spending” at agencies such as the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation despite attempts to control their expenses.

There are more than 600 agencies in Ontario, 259 of which are controlled directly by the province and the top 14 of which spend more than $1.7 billion a year, Duncan said.

“We will reduce that number of agencies by five per cent,” he said. “In these difficult times, we need to look under every stone to cut back on agencies with overlapping functions or agencies whose function could either cease to exist or simply be performed more efficiently by other means.”

The Liberals argue they have toughened rules on meals, travel and hospitality expenses. “And we’ve banned the use of taxpayer dollars to ban the use of lobbyists asking for more taxpayer dollars,” he said.

Duncan also pointed out that the Liberals are transforming services to all children’s aid societies and that Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten has found over a dozen agencies that can be consolidated into half that number.

For months, the Progressive Conservatives have called on the Liberals to hold a sunset review of all agencies, boards and commissions in order to justify their existence.

“Honest to God, you could take any three letters of the alphabet, put them in any order you want to and you’ll get some Ontario agency, board or commission that you’ve never heard of but you are putting tens of millions of dollars a year to sustain,” PC Leader Tim Hudak said Tuesday.

The Tories have promised that, if elected in 2011, they will get rid of the 14 local health integration networks, or LHINs, which they call a “bloated bureaucracy of middle managers” that has taken $250 million out of front-line health care.

When asked what other agency Hudak would consider trimming, he mentioned the Ontario Power Authority — a once transitional body that has ballooned to 235 employees.

In the Legislature earlier this year, Hudak pointed out that the Ontario Power Authority employs 75 people earning over $11.5 million.

The Liberals will also slash the “Discovery and Catalyst” innovation awards in an effort to save $2.5 million.