Ontario saved millions but put lives in jeopardy by contracting out highway snow clearing and other winter road maintenance with poor oversight, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in a damning new report.

“In the past, highways were cleared much faster,” the auditor told reporters Wednesday, noting that “preliminary results show an increase in the number of deaths on Ontario highways in 2013 where snow, slush or ice was a factor.”

It’s taking twice as long to clear highways to bare pavement after storms than it did five years ago under a new system of “performance-based” contracts with specified service levels and no more on-the-road supervision by Ministry of Transportation staff.

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Lysyk said she was stunned to find the Liberal government kept awarding the contracts despite warnings from Ministry of Transportation engineers that many low bidders didn’t have enough equipment to do the job properly.

In one startling case a year ago, an unnamed northern Ontario contractor refused to clear winter roads at one point and was fined for poor performance following an audit prompted by a pileup of 14 tractor trailers that forced an extensive highway closure.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca refused to apologize for the problems but said that “there’s no doubt there needs to be improvements. I will get this right.”

Del Duca said 105 pieces of snow removal, de-icing, salting and sanding equipment have been added in the past year and 20 inspectors added to keep better track of contractors, with whom he will meet in the coming weeks.

To “hold my feet to the fire,” he’s asked the auditor report back on the situation after next winter.

The NDP — which was in power when some highway maintenance was privatized in the early 1990s — said the report points to the dangers of turning government services to the private sector.

“Our highways were less safe,” said MPP Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay), who raised concerns that most of these performance-based contracts are still in place. He noted that Premier Kathleen Wynne served as transportation minister for a time under her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.

Progressive Conservative MPP Michael Harris said the report shows a startling level of “mismanagement and a complete lack of oversight … in an attempt to save a few bucks.”

Lysyk noted in the 43-page report that one low bidder “ended up costing more than the next highest bigger because the province had to step in and pay for more equipment to clear roads properly.”

She suggested the government start looking at “best value” for taxpayers’ money and not just the lowest price.

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The auditor also found contractors under performance-based contracts used less anti-icing liquid, sand and salt on roads.

The Ontario Road Builders Association, representing 200 contractors, said the performance-based contracts have “serious flaws” and the group will work with the government on making roads safer.