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It cost taxpayers $468 million when Premier Kathleen Wynne reopened teacher contracts to soften a wage-freeze bill her predecessor Dalton McGuinty imposed, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk says.

That is the total for the additional cost, she told reporters Wednesday after releasing a long-awaited special report into the 2012 legislation that Wynne repealed and renegotiated after taking power last year.

The lost savings which come off the $2.4 billion originally estimated by the Liberals came in new deals with several unions for benefits, salaries and wages . . . something I view as taken directly out of the classrooms, said Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod.

She chided the Liberals for keeping the extra costs secret after negotiations were reached.

The government wasnt honest and it wasnt truthful, MacLeod charged, noting teachers had deserted their traditional Liberal allies in droves after the wage-freeze bill was passed.

Kathleen Wynne wanted to consolidate a voting bloc of hers before an election.

Education Minister Liz Sandals who said in April 2013 that a revised deal with high school teachers is not going to cost taxpayers one dollar more than when we started walked away from reporters asking about the $468 million in foregone savings when the government is trying to eliminate a $12.5 billion deficit.

I think thats a very odd question . . . I think it is a good news story, she said in reference to Lysyks finding that the Liberal government was reasonable in its estimates of cost savings for the bill covering the two-year period from 2012 to 2014.

All our calculations were reasonable given the information we had at the time.

Lysyk said the extra costs to bolster the deals with teachers are separate.

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Liberals' decision to reopen teacher contract cost $468M, auditor says