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Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 19, 2018

Doug Ford’s PCs launching inquiry into previous Liberal government’s spending

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is vowing to “clean up” the government’s finances, in part by launching an inquiry into the previous Liberal regime’s spending.

The PCs have created an Independent Financial Commission of Inquiry to probe Ontario’s past spending and accounting practices. The commission will be led by former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell, as well as Al Rosen, a forensic accountant, and Michael Horgan, a consultant with decades of public service experience.

“The commission will give you the answers about what went wrong,” Ford told reporters, from behind a podium bearing the slogan “Restoring trust.”

The commission’s findings will be made public, and Ford said the results should provide some advice about how to fix the situation.

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

The premier is pledging that the inquiry would build on the work of the province’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, who has been critical of government accounting standards that she said understate its deficits by billions.

“The office of the auditor general appreciates the government’s intent as part of the financial commission of inquiry to address the accounting practices we have previously expressed concerns about,”  Lysyk said in a statement. (Source: CBC News)