MPP hopes report will overturn ONTC sale

Vic Fedeli wants the province to put the brakes on the sale of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission and wait for the findings of the auditor general's report.

The Nipissing MPP confirms that Jim McCarter's office will look into the hotly contested divestment plan the McGuinty Liberals said would save the province millions.

Fedeli said he hopes the auditor general will come up with the same bottom line he did: that between pension payouts plus outstanding environmental liabilities and no revenue coming in, there won’t be any savings.

Fedeli called the divestment of the ONTC a "fire sale," and said the commission should stay in public hands.

When asked on CBC Radio’s Morning North program if other companies would absorb some of those pension costs and avoid some severance packages by putting employees back to work, Fedeli had this to say:

"The big one is the severance. The severance could be as high — and this is one number specifically for the auditor to verify — as $450 million," he said.

"What company would buy an asset with 110 years worth of environmental liabilities that are yet fully unknown?"

The auditor general is expected to re-crunch the numbers and report back to the legislature.