The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the Wynne government to comply with requests from the Financial Accountability Officer (FAO) to grant access to the data he needs to do his job holding the government to account.

The FAO provides Ontario with an independent analysis on the state of the province’s finances and trends in the economy. However, on May 31, the FAO warned that the Wynne administration has been unable to access “virtually any projection concerning future provincial revenue and spending,” and that he suspects “political direction” from the government is the reason these figures are being withheld.

“The Wynne government needs to stop throwing up political roadblocks and allow the FAO to look into their documents to see if their budget claims are true,” said CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn. “If Wynne is proud of how she has managed the province’s economy, she should have no problem allowing the FAO to confirm the claims she has made in her budget.”

The FAO has issued a number of reports questioning the Ontario government’s budget projections, based on the documents he has been able to access to date. A fall report by the FAO recommended that the government reduce their high revenue growth predictions. A spring report issued last week found that if the government is able to meet their balanced budget target (based on their high revenue projections), they will almost immediately slip back into deficit and within five years the provincial debt will reach $350 billion.

“The FAO has been a thorn in Kathleen Wynne’s side, by issuing reports that show how badly her government has mismanaged the economy. But just because she doesn’t want to listen to what the FAO is saying, doesn’t give Premier Wynne the right to politically block his access to the documents he needs to do his job. The government needs to be transparent with the FAO and the public about what they have done to Ontario’s finances,” concluded Van Geyn.