Vic Fedeli is promising to serve up a "dose of reality" on the province's fiscal picture alongside bacon and eggs on Friday morning
Fedeli will deliver his first major speech as Ontario's Finance Minister before the Economic Club of Canada, sharing the findings of a commission of inquiry into government accounting.
The commission was tasked with looking at how the previous government did or did not follow accepted accounting principles. An audit of government spending is expected to be made public in the coming weeks.
In the legislature Thursday the Premier claimed the commission had determined that the Liberals had "destroyed the province financially".
Speaking with reporters later, Fedeli would not drop any hints of what is to come other than a discussion of the "true state" of Ontario finances.
A report from Ontario's Auditor General just before the start of the spring election campaign said the Liberals' accounting practices made them "dramatically understate" their deficit by billions of dollars.
Bonnie Lysyk said the Liberals' deficit projections were off by 75% for 2018-2019, jumping to 92% for 2020-2021.
That means the $6.7 billion deficit that had been projected for 2018-2019 should have been $11.7 billion and the projected $6.5 billion for 2020-2021, $12.5 billion.
Lysyk said the Liberal government did not accurately reflect the true cost of its borrowing plan to cut hydro rates by 25%, while also raising questions about how it accounted for revenues related to two teacher pension plans included on the books as assets.
The Liberals tried to brush off the discrepancy as a difference of opinion among accountants.
Political analyst and NEWSTALK 1010 contributor Jim Warren thinks Fedeli has a big challenge ahead dealing with the fiscal reality and politically pleasing the Premier at the same time.
Warren expects Doug Ford to use the findings of the commission and the audit to justify future cuts and to backpedal on campaign pledges.
"He will claim if he only knew just how bad things were, that he wouldn't have promised or said the things that he did."
Warren believes Progressive Conservative commitments tied to reducing taxes and hydro rates are "untouchable" and that the Premier will want to focus on cutting expenses instead.
Ford vowed on the campaign trail that "not one single person will lose their job" and suggested that finding $6 billion in "efficiencies would a simple task.
Warren predicts Ford's words will come back to bite him.
"The only way they're ever going to balance the budget and go back to having a responsible, conservative budget is going to be to lay off people or spend less money on the people that they currently spend money on," Warren said.
"If you think the protests outside of Queen's Park in the last week were something, wait until you see what happens when Ford has to talk about cutting money that goes to the teachers."
Fedeli would not say Thursday if he would use the commission's findings to pave the way for cuts.
"The facts will be the facts," Fedeli said.
with files from the Canadian Press