Article content continued

“We’ve got $7 million in un-receipted payouts to unions (and school boards) who spent $6.5 million in attack ads against the Progressive Conservative Party in the last election,” Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod said in question period Tuesday. She wants Lysysk to review teachers’ contracts in recent years and prove whether or not the Liberals have really kept their promise to hold the line on compensation costs.

The Grits have promised “net zeros” in all contracts, meaning all new costs have to be offset with other cuts. So what’s been paying for the costly talks? At least some of the money was shuffled from a program to help struggling students graduate, ostensibly because it’s been so successful it’s no longer necessary.

Those numbers were part of the net zero and if the auditor general wants to look into, she’ll find (that) out

MacLeod said, “$7 million would have gone a long way for those needy children across the province,” as breakfast programs, including one in her Nepean-Carlton riding, are being shuttered across Ontario. She said $1 million feeds 4,000 students breakfast for one week.

But Sandals remained confident that should the auditor check her work, she will simply be vindicated in her net zeroes.

“I’ve said over and over again we’ve reached ‘net zero’… those numbers were part of the net zero and if the auditor general wants to look into, she’ll find (that) out,” the minister said.

Sandals said the costs were part of adjusting to a new bargaining framework and the unions won’t ever again be compensated in such a way.

MacLeod plans to table the motion asking for the auditor review in the public accounts committee. However, the governing Liberals have a majority on the committee and must support the motion for it to pass. Lysysk could also opt to audit the teachers deals of her own accord, but it would take some time as work on her annual report, expected in December, is well underway.