The welfare minister in Premier Doug Ford’s government is now denying her controversial decision to kill a basic income pilot project is a broken campaign promise, calling such reports “fake news.”

The claim from Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod came Thursday as criticism of the move grew deeper, particularly from former Progressive Conservative senator Hugh Segal, who helped the previous Liberal government design the program testing a new course for people on welfare.

“We did not break a promise,” MacLeod insisted in the Legislature’s daily question period. “That fake news that was in the news today totally mischaracterizes what we’re doing.”

The denial came a day after MacLeod conceded that axing the basic income pilot program for 4,000 families contradicted a promise in writing from Progressive Conservative spokeswoman Melissa Lantsman during this spring’s election campaign.

“We had a platform that we released. It wasn’t in the platform,” MacLeod later told reporters before walking away from journalists’ questions for the third day in a row.

Opposition parties said MacLeod’s claim the promise wasn’t broken is a desperate attempt at damage control by a PC party that is now forcing through legislation to cut the size of Toronto city council — something that also wasn’t in the Ford campaign platform.

“It’s just another example of how this government is prepared to talk out of both sides of its mouth to suit its political agenda,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“They were very clear during the campaign that they had no intention of rolling back the basic income pilot project and now what they’ve done is kicked thousands of people in the teeth.”

The promise relayed by Lantsman, a senior campaign official, came in an email exchange in April with the Star’s Laurie Monsebraaten, who asked if a Ford government would support the year-old pilot as did previous PC leader Patrick Brown.

“Let me check with our team on this one and get back to you,” replied Lantsman, who later confirmed by email “We look forward to seeing the results of the pilot program.”

When asked directly if the pilot would be cancelled, Lantsman clarified: “Nope, as mentioned we look forward to seeing the results.”

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said it took “gall” for MacLeod to charge media reports were “fake news.”

“Yesterday the minister essentially admitted they broke their promise,” added Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, noting MacLeod had initially defended the move as a “tough decision.”

“And a day later now she’s saying they didn’t make the promise. Who are we to believe in this situation, the minister yesterday or the minister today?”

MacLeod trotted out new arguments for ending the three-year pilot program, which cost $50 million annually, saying that to adopt it province-wide would cost $17 billion — about $7 billion more than is now spent on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program for about 1 million Ontarians.

“That was what our decision point was.”

The minister has been criticized for not allowing the program — a tiny fraction of the province’s annual budget — to continue by Segal, who wrote a scathing opinion piece in Thursday’s Globe and Mail calling MacLeod’s decision “callous and mean-spirited.”

“Looking at the cost of the pilot project is fair enough — but frankly, simplistic. We know that poverty is a perfect predictor of poor health and early hospitalization, bad educational outcomes, substance abuse and problems with the police — all of which cost Ontario billions.” Segal wrote.

“So if the pilot had revealed that health care usage was diminished, wellness improved, workplace participation increased, educational achievement enhanced and policing challenges diluted, how much would that have been worth? Do the Ford Nation Conservatives even care to find out?”

With the project already 15 months old, MacLeod said there will be “ample results by the time we end up winding the program down.”

She would not reveal a date for the end but promised an unspecified “lengthy and compassionate transition period.” Earlier this week, she said it would continue in August, but Thursday said payouts would extend into September.

The basic income pilot provided single participants $17,000 annually and couples $24,000 — roughly double standard welfare rates — to see if the money improved their odds of finding more lucrative employment and improved their housing, health and nutrition, while lowering the costly administrative burden of traditional welfare programs.

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Although some participants used the money to go back to college or university to boost their odds of rising out of poverty with good jobs, MacLeod branded the pilot program a “disincentive” to finding employment.

“It isn’t providing the results that the province needs for the money that it would require,” she said, adding reforms will be announced in November.

“The changes that we are going to make in the next 100 days are going to be able to lift people up, get more people back into the workforce, and to ensure those who are the most vulnerable receive the most support.”