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TORONTO — Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government has appointed a former British Columbia premier to lead an independent inquiry into the previous Liberal government’s spending.

Premier Doug Ford says Gordon Campbell will head the Commission of Inquiry, which will issue a public report on its findings by Aug. 30.

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“What we are witnessing is a betrayal of the public trust,” Ford had said of the Liberal government’s books in April, when he first promised the inquiry.

“We go in there, we’re going to find additional waste, we’re going to find areas that we can drive efficiencies.”

Photo by Cole Burston/Bloomberg

Ford also announced that the province is taking bids from outside experts to conduct a line-by-line audit of government books.

He says the inquiry will provide answers on what went wrong with the province’s finances, while the audit will shed light on how the government can fix those issues.

The premier has pledged that the Commission of Inquiry would build on the work of the province’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, who has suggested the government understated its deficit by billions.

The former Liberal government attributed the discrepancy to an accounting dispute related to calculations surrounding its Fair Hydro Plan and pension expenses.

Ford has said he trusts the auditor general’s report but does not believe it gives a complete picture of government spending and accounting practices. He has not said how much the inquiry he has promised would cost.