TORONTO - Ontario's New Democrats say the Liberal government has a "million-dollar-a-day" consultant habit.
Documents obtained by the NDP under freedom of information laws show the Ontario government spent more than $389 million on consulting services last year.
That figure doesn't include arms-length agencies, boards and commissions or provincially funded municipalities, universities or hospitals.
New Democrat Paul Miller says it's outrageous that the province is spending so much on consultants during such difficult economic times.
The documents show how much each of Ontario's 31 ministries paid for consultants in 2007-08, and it turns out the Ministry of Health isn't the biggest user of outside consultants.
The Ministry of Government Services spent almost $104 million on consultants, $14 million more than the Ministry of Health, which has been under fire for the eHealth Ontario scandal.
That agency and the ministry spent $1 billion over 10 years trying to develop electronic health records, and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in untendered contracts to consultants.
The Ministry of Finance spent nearly $36 million on consulting services last year, while the Ministries of Transportation and Correctional Services each spent more than $33 million on consultants.
