Financial accountability officer says Ontario Liberals withholding key info

Ontario's budget watchdog says the Liberal governmentis still withholding key information he needs to do his job.

Financial accountability officer Stephen LeClair says his officemade six information requests of government ministries and agenciesin its first year of operation, but received only four partialanswers.

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LeClair says ministries too frequently cite a cabinetconfidentiality exemption that he believes does not apply toforecasts of future government revenue and spending, and make itmore costly and difficult to do his duties.

He says it's difficult to know if a bill is a good idea withouthaving access to the government's forecasts of its impact, or toknow if there are areas of uncertainty that his office should pointout to MPPs.

LeClair made similar complaints about being refused governmentinformation when he released a report last fall into the Liberals'plansto privatize Hydro One.

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The Progressive Conservatives say they wonder what the Liberalsare hiding by refusing to co-operate with the financial
accountability officer, while the New Democrats say the governmentclearly has a problem with independent oversight.

"The Liberal government has tried to undermine the auditorgeneral, they've fought with the ombudsman and they are refusing togive the FAO the information he needs to do his job," said NDPfinance critic Catherine Fife."A premier that's so focused on keeping secrets clearly isn'tinterested in what's best for Ontario families."

The Liberals agreed to create the financial accountability officeto get the NDP's support for the 2013 Ontario budget when they werein a minority and needed votes from another party to avoidtriggering an election campaign.