TORONTO – Tempers flared on the Progressive Conservative benches Tuesday as Ontario’s New Democrats set aside concerns over the costly cancellation of gas plants and agreed to vote for the minority Liberal government’s budget and avert a summer election.
“I want to send a message to the NDP that there is a choice before them today … a choice to prop up a corrupt government that has been part of not only one, but two OPP investigations,” Opposition Leader Tim Hudak said to kick off question period.
Both the Tories and NDP have accused the Liberals of destroying the emails to cover up the cost of cancelling the gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville, which has soared to $585 million, far above the $230 million the government had been claiming.
The Ontario Provincial Police last week announced a criminal investigation into the wiping out of email accounts. The OPP was already investigating allegations of financial wrongdoing at Ornge, the province’s troubled air ambulance service.
Hudak was also spitting barbs at NDP Leader Andrea Horwath for agreeing to support the Liberal budget.
“Premier, you’re going to thank the leader of the NDP,” said Hudak. “She’s tied herself into a human pretzel just to prop up a corrupt government.”
Outside the legislature, Horwath joked about “sticks and stones,” defended her decision to work with the Liberals to get changes in the budget, and lashed out at the Tories for saying they’d vote against the fiscal plan before they even read it.
“Mr. Hudak can call all the names he likes, and he can scream from the rooftops, but what has he achieved,” asked Horwath. “I don’t think he’s achieved anything for the people of Ontario, but I think New Democrats have.”
Horwath pointed out the NDP managed to get several of their ideas in the budget, including a 15 per cent cut in auto insurance premiums, higher welfare rates, a youth jobs program and more money for home care services.
Another key factor, said Horwath, was the agreement to appoint a Financial Accountability Officer in hopes of heading off future scandals.
“This measure is needed to stop scandals like the ones that occurred under their watch, like eHealth, like Ornge, like the gas plant scandal, from ever happening again,” she said.
Horwath warned an election now would kill the justice committee hearings into the cancellations of the gas plants, which the opposition parties say were killed to save Liberal seats in the 2011 election when they were reduced to a minority government.
Hudak accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of misleading the public by saying all the gas plant documents were released when she knew senior Liberals in former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office and the Ministry of Energy had deleted email accounts.
“Premier, you chose to tell the public and members of the assembly that you’d released all the documents, when you knew that they had been destroyed,” he said.
“I regret saying this, but quite frankly, premier, we thought Dalton McGuinty was bad; you’re more of the same.”
Wynne said the public expects the three parties to co-operate in the minority parliament, and praised Horwath for working with the Liberals to make some key changes to the budget.
“I want to say that it was very heartening to me that the leader of the third party was willing to work with us,” Wynne told the legislature.
“She brought forward the idea of the Financial Accountability Officer … a good idea and something that we can act on.”
The legislature was scheduled to adjourn until Sept. 9 after the confidence vote on the budget.
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