McGuinty fires back over gas plant emails

(Updated) Former premier Dalton McGuinty was in the hot seat again this afternoon. For the second time in two months, he is being questioned about the cancellation of two gas plants in Missisauga and Oakville.

McGuinty was called back to testify after the privacy commissioner found staff in his office broke the law by deleting emails regarding the canceled gas plants. He defended his staff, saying that training is simply not enough, and that there needs new, and clearer rules on document retention.

McGuinty stood firm that no emails were deleted as part of a cover-up and blamed a lack of understanding of the rules for the missing emails.

In a heated exchange with PC MPP Vic Fedeli, McGuinty also accused the Ontario Power Authority of failing to give a firm estimate of costs.

“I think you’ve had four numbers from the OPA now.”

Fedeli: “So what number do you go with today?”

“I think it points out to a shortcoming over at the OPA.”

Going back to earlier this morning, information and privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian accused former McGuinty chief of staff Chris Morley of misleading the justice committee when he appeared in front of them last week. She said Chris Morley’s claim that there were 99 reasons to delete emails was “totally slanted”.

“To suggest that there are 99 areas is highly misleading because it characterizes the archives and record-keeping act as a document that is there for the purpose of deleting records and destroying them, as opposed to the exact opposite which is all about the preservation of records, the retention of records, which in our view forms the foundation of our free and democratic process.”

“Access to government records is absolutely essential to keeping accountability.”

Al Sweeney has more on McGuinty’s testimony today.