Buried in this week's Financial Accountability Office (FAO) report on the Ontario government books is a very quiet admission that Ontario ran a surplus of $700 million in 2017/18 (when using the government's accounting method for pension surpluses and hydro). Just a year ago, the FAO claimed there would be a deficit of $500 million. This $1.2 billion over-estimate is not surprising. The FAO has consistently cried wolf. A year ago, they put the 2016/17 deficit at $2.8 billion (when using the government's accounting methods) . Now they put it at $1 billion with the same accounting methods. Towards the end of the 2015/16 fiscal year they overestimated the deficit for that year by $3.3 billion to $5 billion more than they subsequently admitted. Even after that fiscal year ended, they put it at $2.2 billion more than they later admitted. Now the FAO has changed its accounting methods (following the Auditor General) to claim a much higher deficit. Accordingly it t
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan