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TORONTO — Ontario’s government spending watchdog warns there is “significant risk” the Liberals will not eliminate a $4.3 billion deficit next year, but Finance Minister Charles Sousa insists the books will be balanced as promised.

In his fall economic statement Nov. 14, Sousa announced he would dip into the reserve fund to ensure a balanced budget in 2017-18, in part because of an accounting change in the way pension liabilities are calculated.

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“We’re balancing next year and we’re balancing the year after that,” Sousa said Monday. “We’re much more aggressive in our assumptions, and while the FAO is estimating that impact (from the accounting change) will be $1.5 billion a year, we said it would be $2.2 billion and $3.7 billion.”

The Financial Accountability Office issued a report Monday insisting the Liberals were relying on “optimistic assumptions for revenue growth and program spending restraint.” The FAO said the government’s revenue projection is $2.8 billion higher than its estimate for 2016-17, and $5.2 billion higher by 2018-19.