Ontario Liberals searching for budget leak source

A high-level investigation into the leak of secret budget documents is under way at the Ministry of Finance, but Ontario Provincial Police are not being called in.

Sources told the Star the bureaucrat suspected of leaking the budget rollout calendar to the Progressive Conservatives will face severe disciplinary action — including possible dismissal — if caught.

Public servants are bound by confidentiality agreements not to divulge sensitive information and those working on the budget are closely watched by uniformed OPP officers who patrol the Frost Building, the ministry’s Queen’s Park headquarters.

The government believes a mid-level manager — a member of the Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) union now in bitter contract talks with the province — forwarded the 11-page document to the Tories.

AMAPCEO president Gary Gannage, whose 11,500 members on Sunday voted 94 per cent in favour of their first-ever strike, has suggested the government is just looking for a “scapegoat.”

Publicly, Finance Minister Charles Sousa played down the breach on Wednesday and insiders say there are no plans to demand a criminal probe.

“I have great confidence and I respect the individuals that have been working hard in delivering and putting forward a document that’s going to be extremely substantive and very visionary,” said Sousa.

“I am not going to concern myself with the antics of any individual or what the opposition (parties) are doing. I’m more concerned about what the people of Ontario expect.”

So far, Sousa has stuck to the items revealed on the internal calendar, which shows the Liberals planned 39 budget-themed news events over 27 days leading up to the May budget.

In a speech to the Canadian Club on Thursday, Sousa will reveal a revised deficit figure lower than the projected $11.7-billion shortfall.

The rollout is especially important to the Liberals this year because if the Sousa’s fiscal blueprint is defeated by the Conservatives and the NDP, Ontario voters would be heading to the polls in June.

In the legislature, Tory MPP Vic Fedeli (Nipissing) castigated Premier Kathleen Wynne for trying to identify the origins of the breach.

“Several hard-working, conscientious people have come forward because they’re tired of being used as political pawns and you go on a witch hunt?” said Fedeli.

Still, the Tories, who had pounced on the documents Tuesday, backed off Wednesday to focus on the controversy swirling around the Liberals’ cancellation of gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election, which could cost $1.1 billion over 20 years.

“There’s so many scandals, so little time, that’s the problem,” said Fedeli, defending the PC strategy shift.

“We’ve got the Pan Am scandal, we’ve got the ORNGE scandal, we’ve got this budget-leak scandal, we’ve got the gas-plants scandal that’s taken a life of its own,” he said, referring to the OPP investigation into allegations computers were wiped.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her party still has not determined if it will prop up the Liberals through a third consecutive budget cycle.

“As everyone knows, there’s a budget that’s coming at some point in time and when it gets here we’ll make that decision,” said Horwath.

“I’ve always said I will look at the budget before I make any determination and that is still my intention. However, I do think that it’s important that New Democrats continue to do the work that we’ve been doing to try to get answers for people around the cover-up of the gas-plant scandals,” she said.

“There’s a difference between leaked documents and an actual budget document.”