TORONTO – Ontario’s privacy commissioner says top staff in former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office broke the law by deleting all emails related to the cancellation of gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.
Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian says the indiscriminate deletion of all emails sent and received by McGuinty’s former Chief of Staff, David Livingston, violated the Archives and Recordkeeping Act.
Cavoukian also found as recently as January 2013 staff in the former premier’s office tried to find out how to permanently delete emails and other electronic documents.
The privacy commissioner concluded the email practices of McGuinty’s office violated their legal obligations.
However, Cavoukian says she cannot state with certainty that there was inappropriate deletion of emails as part of the transition to the Kathleen Wynne’s administration to avoid transparency and accountability.
The opposition parties contend the Liberals deleted the emails to help cover up the total cost of cancelling the gas plants, which has now ballooned to $585 million.
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