TORONTO _ Premier Dalton McGuinty is defending his decision not to appear before an all-party committee Wednesday that’s investigating Ontario’s troubled air ambulance service.
   
It’s up to Health Minister Deb Matthews to answer the committee’s questions and she has appeared three times, he said.
    
“I think they’ve had some 54 witnesses who have attended to date and there have been countless hours of testimony,” he said after touring an empty Toronto school.
    
“I think what we really need from the committee at this point in time is a set of recommendations that we might be able to act on.”
    
McGuinty said he’s already answered questions about Ornge, including when he first met ousted CEO Chris Mazza, and is prepared to answer more during question period.
    
But the Progressive Conservatives say the committee is the only forum where the premier would have to testify under oath about what he knew about Ornge before it became front-page news.
    
Ornge is currently under a criminal probe over financial irregularities and has been the subject of a scathing report by the auditor general, who criticized the Liberals for failing to oversee the service.
    
The committee has heard explosive testimony about an alleged kickback scheme, exorbitant salaries, badly designed medical interiors in brand-new helicopters and what one member called “heavy-duty nepotism” at Ornge.
    
The province’s chief coroner and a panel of experts are also taking another look at deaths involving Ornge over the past six years to determine whether transport may have played a role.
    
McGuinty is dodging the committee because he doesn’t want the Ornge scandal to come up in two byelections that could give him a majority government, charged Tory Frank Klees.
    
The last thing McGuinty wants is for voters in Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan to be reminded of the scandal, he said.
    
“We’re promising the premier that we’re going to continue to raise this issue … to remind the voters in both ridings that this is a premier who presided over the festering of one of the most expensive scandals that this province has ever had,” Klees said.
    
“And he is refusing to even answer questions. Why?”
    
The committee only wanted just an hour of McGuinty’s time Wednesday, but he blew them off for a photo op, Klees said.
    
McGuinty and Mazza are the only two witnesses who refused to appear before the committee, Klees said. But Mazza was under medical care for mental health issues and finally testified after the committee issued two Speaker’s warrants to compel him to appear.
    
But McGuinty has no excuse and knows that as premier, he can’t be compelled to testify, Klees said.
    
The Tories took McGuinty up on his challenge Wednesday, using almost all their time in question period to pepper the premier with questions about Ornge.
    
The committee expects to hear from two witnesses, including Mazza’s former assistant, later in the day.