Premier Dalton McGuinty has refused a second request to testify before an all-party committee probing the ORNGE disaster.

Not only has the premier refused, House Leader John Milloy and the premier’s senior health policy advisor Sophia Ikura also did not accept invitations to appear before the probe on Wednesday.

Despite claims that the Liberals want to get to the bottom of the air ambulance scandal, charged Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott, all they are doing is blocking progress.

“Clearly there is something wrong,” she said.

ORNGE, a public agency that receives $150 million annually, is the focus of an ongoing Ontario Provincial Police investigation concerning questionable contracts and business dealings. An all-party, provincial committee has also been examining the turmoil at ORNGE for five months.

McGuinty brushed off calls for him to appear. Responding to Tory questions in the House during question period, the premier said the committee has sat for 89 hours and listened to 57 witnesses. Now is the time to stop fishing and to release recommendations on how to fix the agency, he added.

Milloy later denied he refused to testify. He told reporters he was asked on Tuesday to appear before the probe on Wednesday and that his busy schedule made it impossible.

Milloy also told the House that Ikura is eight months pregnant and was at a medical appointment and that is the reason why she refused. Government sources told the Star that Ikura said she’ll testify at another time, if she is requested.

NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh countered McGuinty’s claims, saying now is the time not to give up exploring but to keep digging and extend the probe’s life.

Also Wednesday, the public accounts committee is set to hear, once again, from Jay Lebo, the ex-aide of ORNGE founder Chris Mazza. Last week, he stunned the hearing by telling them he was ordered to falsify documents.

“I was instructed to create false information for the auditors,” Lebo said, fingering deposed ORNGE chief executive Mazza and former vice-president Maria Renzella for the controversial order.

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