McGuinty, Bentley ‘lied’ about gas plant documents: Hudak
Posted October 15, 2012 11:27 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and energy minister Chris Bentley lied and withheld documents about the cost of the Liberals’ controversial cancellation of two GTA power plants, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak charged Monday.
“This clearly is an attempt by the McGuinty government to cover up exactly what happened and hide documents from the general public,” Hudak said at Queen’s Park.
The public was misled, Hudak said.
Bentley denied the charge during question period.
“There was no deliberate attempt to provide incorrect information,” he said, to jeers.
The Liberals cancelled two power plants in Oakville and Mississauga, a move the government claims cost taxpayers $230 million. Opposition members believe that figure is much higher.
A finance committee is deciding if Bentley should be held in contempt of Parliament for allegedly withholding documents on the costs of cancelling the projects.
Hudak said an additional “20,000 documents were dumped at the end of day on Friday. They were dumped in a format that was difficult for the public, the media and MPPs to wade through.
“If there was truly a mistake made, they would have contacted us and let us know that the documents were forthcoming. That never happened,” he said.
The Liberals released 36,000 pages of documents on Sept. 24.
During question period, Bentley said he believed those were all the relevant documents. Friday’s release of 20,000 documents was an unintentional mistake, he said.
