Opposition members at Queen's Park are furious over what they claim is unjustified, lavish spending by a top civil servant.
Jill Hutcheon, president and CEO of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and a deputy minister at Queen's Park, is charging taxpayers for gas and grocery bills at the cottage, car detailing and ritzy hotels, they said Thursday in the legislature.
A Conservative party researcher dug up Hutcheon's expenses from the last two years and put the report before MPPs.
According to Tory reports, Hutcheon spent almost $7,000 on a two-day conference in New York City last April where she stayed at one of the most expensive hotels in the city, the Waldorf Astoria. They also allege she spent $2,000 on meals last year.
In one instance, she spent $168 for a Toronto hotel room when she lives in the city.
Hutcheon earns a salary of about $400,000 per year.
"People should be offended about this," Progressive Conservative MPP Bob Runciman told reporters.
"It shows the hollowness of the Liberal government's real commitment to restraint," he said.
"People are losing their jobs...seniors are losing their savings, towns are being threatened in terms of their very existence by what's going on and we are dealing with these kinds of things that I think are meant to be sideshows," Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory told reporters on Thursday.
The Conservatives are asking the provincial auditor to further investigate Hutcheon's spending.
CTV Toronto tried to get comment from the WSIB, which said it will respond on Thursday.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss
