LONDON -- London city hall is pushing back against a failing grade for fiscal transparency in a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute.

Coun. Josh Morgan, who chairs city hall’s budget process, says the F grade assigned to London in the institute’s new commentary report Grading the Fiscal Transparency of Canadian Cities fails to take several important factors into its analysis.

“The grade I care about more is the three As we’ve got from Moody’s Investment Services on the assessment of our triple-A credit rating,” he says.

The institute’s report set out to “grade the clarity, comprehensiveness, and timeliness of the financial presentations of 31 major Canadian municipalities, based on the most recent budgets and financial documents."

Based on the 10 factors evaluated, London received an F. But Morgan rejects the failing grade.

“Their processes are flawed and I don’t put a lot of stock in their report.”

He says the report ignores numerous public input sessions and the mid-year financial update documents.

“We’ve set forward a robust process to make sure Londoners are engaging.... To make sure they understand how we are collecting and spending their money.”

The report also evaluated cities based on the date that their budget was approved.

Morgan argues London could not approve the 2019 budget before the start of the year because the new council term began Dec. 1.

Other municipalities that received a failing grade include Windsor, Durham, and Quebec City.