TORONTO -- Ontario's Liberal government insists it did not purchase snowplows and other equipment for companies contracted to maintain roads and highways, contradicting a report from the province's auditor general.

During question period Monday, the Progressive Conservatives demanded to know if snow plowing equipment the auditor said was purchased by taxpayers for road maintenance contractors is owned by the province or by the private companies.

PC transportation critic Michael Harris said the Liberal government had to spend millions of dollars to buy plows and spreaders for the companies it contracted to clear highways of snow.

Four of those contracts have been scrapped, and Harris wanted to know who owns the equipment that was purchased, equipment he said the companies should have had before they got the government contracts.

"The government handed over millions of dollars to buy 100 pieces of equipment for these contractors," said Harris. "So tell me, who owns that equipment at the end of the day?"

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca admitted he wasn't entirely clear on who owns the snowplows and other equipment that was purchased.

"My understanding is that when we work with the contractor and we provide additional equipment, that the equipment will stay in the region for the work that will be ongoing," he said.

However, Del Duca's press secretary, Patrick Searle, later said the province never purchased any equipment for road maintenance contractors, but told them to buy plows and spreaders and then the government gave them more money.

"We've invested millions in the past three years to put more equipment on the road, but we never paid as a purchase," said Searle. "We pay the company to provide us a service, as opposed to the government owning a fleet of winter maintenance vehicles."

Harris said the bottom line was that Ontario taxpayers paid almost $15 million for plows and sanders to equip the private contractors, who can now sell the equipment when the contracts expire or are terminated.

"Whether the government bought them or the government paid for them, I'll let the minister figure out what story he's eventually going to communicate," said Harris.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk issued a special report last April that said the government put too little emphasis on how much snow clearing equipment a company owned when it awarded road maintenance contracts.

"Having enough equipment accounted for only 15 per cent of the criteria on which contractors were evaluated in stage 1," wrote Lysyk. "The only factor considered from this point on was how low a price the contractor bid."

The government paid $1.7 million to buy 13 pieces of snow clearing equipment for the lowest bidder on one road contract worth $700,000, even though the second-lowest bidder had enough plows and could have done the job "at a significantly lower cost," added Lysyk.

The New Democrats said the Liberals like to reward their friends with government contracts.

"I would not be surprised if we find out at some point through an FOI or some other way that in fact that they've just bought brand spanking new equipment for some private company," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.