Police allege Liberal caucus paid $10k to have McGuinty office computers wiped

WATCH: Alan Carter reports on new police documents which accuse Dalton McGuinty’s staff of using taxpayer money to have computer data wiped clean.

TORONTO – Newly released police documents allege the partner of an aide for Dalton McGuinty was paid $10,000 to wipe personal data from the hard drives of computers in the premier’s office which happened to contain emails related to the two cancelled gas plants.

The allegation was contained in over 130 pages of documents which police used in order to obtain a search warrant for the provincial government’s security branch on Jarvis Street which they searched last month.

The documents allege Peter Faist, partner to McGuinty aide Laura Miller, was “paid an amount of $10,000 by the Liberal caucus” to “wipe off personal data on approximately 20 desktop computers in the Premier’s Office.”

The search warrant was also used to gain access to the emails of McGuinty’s chief of staff David Livingston between May 1, 2012 and Feb. 11, 2013 as well as the emails of deputy chief of staff Laura Miller.

The documents allege Livingston conducted a breach of trust by allowing a non-public service employee access government computers, install software and delete data on 21 hard drives within the premier’s office.

Livingston has not been charged with anything and none of the allegations in the documents have been proven in court. Livingston has also insisted he did nothing wrong.

According to the police documents, Faist “was under the impression that Cabinet Office was aware of his presence and the work requested of him.” Faist’s lawyer insists his client did nothing wrong.

The search warrant is part of an ongoing police investigation into the deletion of government emails relating to the cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the Oct. 2011 provincial election.

Ontario’s auditor general Bonnie Lysyk announced in Oct. 2013 the estimated cost of cancelling the Oakville gas plants at between $675 million and $815 million. She also estimated the cost of cancelling both plants could range from $950 million to almost $1.1 billion.

Opposition parties suggested Thursday the Liberals used their majority government to shut down legislative committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants before the documents could be released.

“It really tells the tale of why the premier and the government was not in any way shape or form allow the truth to come out,” Progressive Conservative MPP Steve Clark said. “We’re seeing what many of us feared was happening was that it was the Liberal party using taxpayers’ dollars for their own politically-motivated decisions.”

NDP politicians suggested the Liberals shut down the committee because they knew there would be damaging testimony from Faist and Miller.

But the Liberal party released a statement shortly after the release of the documents Thursday saying Faist’s services were terminated in March after Wynne was became premier.

“The ITO released today clearly states that staff in Liberal Caucus Service Bureau were not aware of what specific work was done by Mr. Faist, beyond IT services,” said the party statement.

• With files from The Canadian Press