Brazen, desperate Wynne ignores own dismal fiscal record when attacking NDP

If Kathleen Wynne wants to bring scrutiny to the major fiscal plans, she should first look in the mirror.

A veritable who's who of independent auditors have issued scathing analyses of past and present budgets. Hands up everyone who thinks the Wynne government's accounting is bogus:

• Auditor-General of Ontario
• Financial Accountability Office of Ontario
• Former Director of the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, Tim Beauchamp
• Former Saskatchewan and British Columbia Auditor General

When the NDP was made aware of an error in its platform, Leader Andrea Horwath took action and corrected it.

The Liberals have instead waged a public wars of words with the auditor-general and have refused to put forward a budget that follows basic accounting principles – let alone a platform.

Mike Moffatt, the economist the Liberals hand-picked to scrutinize the NDP plan, said yesterday that the NDP will post the lowest deficit under its plan – less than the Wynne Liberals or Doug Ford.

It is telling that Moffatt has sharply criticized Doug Ford for not providing a fully-costed plan and Wynne has responded to Ford's lack of fiscal accountability with silence.

Over the first two weeks of this campaign, the Liberal level of desperation has steadily escalated. But this clearly is a new low.

What Others Have said about Wynne Liberal's Poor Fiscal Record

“We think this accounting is bogus” (Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, deputation before Public Accounts legislative committee on March 21, 2018 )

“Anybody who’s got a deficit – they’ll just make it go away by creating an asset […] It will destroy what the Public Sector Accounting Board has worked for ever since it started. (This) is going to bleed through the whole public sector in Canada. It sets a precedent.” (Tim Beauchamp, former director of the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) of Canada, Toronto Sun, October 21, 2017)

“The Ontario government’s presentation of the province’s finances in its Pre-Election Report last month is ‘not reasonable’ because it understates Ontario’s deficit and expense estimates by billions of dollars over the next three years...” (Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, News release, April 25, 2018)

“In order to not show up on the bottom line, they created creative accounting to take it off the government statements.” (Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, Globe and Mail, April 21, 2018)

“The accounting proposed by the government is wrong and if used would make the Province's budgets and future consolidated financial statements unreliable. This cannot be taken lightly.” (Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk News Release, October 17, 2017)

“I don't accept the underlying premise of Ontario budgets, not the last one and the one before – not just on the accounting.” (Don Drummond, former budget advisor to Dalton McGuinty, TVO, May 4, 2018)