Doug Ford declines to say when records on scrapped $28.9-million jet will be released

“We did a clean ‘giveback’ to Bombardier, if you want to call it that, and anything that is extra — and maybe there’s nothing that’s extra — we’ll make it transparent,” the premier said.

“Again, we will make it transparent as we get the transfer done,” he said, declining to commit to when such documentation would be made public.

Ford has been under fire for more than a fortnight since the Star revealed April 17 that the government had bought a 2016 Bombardier Challenger 650 for the premier’s official travel.

Two days later, he announced the jet, which critics immediately derided as the “gravy plane,” would be sold because of the public outcry.

On April 22, Ford said the aircraft had been returned to Bombardier for the equivalent of a full refund and that he would return to flying commercial, chartering planes or borrowing an Ontario Provincial Police turboprop when available.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser repeatedly called upon Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney to “produce the receipts” from the unusual transaction.

“What are you hiding?” Fraser charged during the legislature’s morning question period.

“Two weeks ago we learned that the premier bought himself a luxury private jet,” he said, demanding to know “how this went down at Treasury Board.”

“You don’t get to spend $29 million of taxpayers’ money in an affordability crisis — or at any time — without any receipts, without any documents, without anybody answering one single question about this.”

Mulroney, for her part, left it to Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy to field the awkward opposition questions.

“The premier was clear: He listened to the people and we moved forward,” emphasized Bethlenfalvy.

“We’re moving Ontario forward. It’s time for them over there to join us moving Ontario forward,” he said, insisting the Treasury Board president, who is responsible for reviewing and controlling government spending, was a careful steward of public funds.

“I work day in, day out with the president of the Treasury Board. I used to be the president of the Treasury Board. This is the best president of the Treasury Board this government has had, right? She works tirelessly day-in, day-out, protecting taxpayers’ money.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles has asked auditor general Shelley Spence to probe the buying and selling of the plane.

Stiles said the entire episode speaks to a third-term Progressive Conservative government that has lost touch with everyday Ontarians.

“Buying a luxury jet is not bringing down the price of gas one bit,” she said.

It may, however, be bringing down the Tories’ poll numbers.

The latest Abacus Data survey found the PCs at 37 per cent, their lowest level of support in two years, with the Liberals, who will elect a new full-time leader on Nov. 21, at 36 per cent, the New Democrats at 17 per cent and Mike Schreiner’s Greens at five per cent.

Abacus surveyed 1,000 Ontarians from April 17 to April 21 using online panels based on the PureSpectrum platform. While opt-in polls cannot be assigned a margin of error, for comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have one of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.