There are “at least 99 different reasons” political staff and bureaucrats must delete documents, Dalton McGuinty’s former chief of staff said Tuesday at a combative hearing into the gas plant scandal.Testifying under oath to MPPs probing the cancellations of two power plants before the 2011 election to save five Liberal seats, Chris Morley said he has no additional documents or notes on the decisions that have dogged the minority Liberal administration.
Morley set out to challenge what he called “inaccuracies” surrounding the rules for deleting documents, a subject under the spotlight since a scathing report two weeks ago from Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian found some senior political staffers were illegally destroying documents.
“There are 99 reasons that are perfectly acceptable. In fact, staff are directed to delete and destroy documents,” said Morley, referring to guidelines on draft, transitory and working papers.
New Democrat House leader Gilles Bisson was incredulous that Morley, who left the government on June 1, 2012, had no notes or papers on issues surrounding the plants in Oakville and Mississauga, given that he was in 2011 budget negotiations where he personally witnessed Morley taking notes.
“You had notes for other things but not on the gas plants?” Bisson asked in a testy exchange.
“Doesn’t that leave a huge hole you can drive a Mack truck through, and call into question your credibility?”
Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli said after the hearing that Morley’s testimony suggests the Liberals had no qualms about deletions.
“They’ve gone to extraordinary means to destroy the evidence . . . we’re trying to get to the bottom of that.”
The committee is investigating why the government long claimed the closures would cost $230 million when the tab has now reached $585 million.
Outside the hearing room, Morley repeatedly insisted he deleted any documents on gas plants according to “the rules” and because some business on the file was done in person or by phone.
“I would have had a number of conversations about them . . . I think that’s entirely appropriate,” he told reporters, when asked why there aren’t more documents and emails from him.
“I encourage people, it’s good business practice . . . for people to pick up the phone.”
Morley declined to comment on how many gas plant emails or documents he deleted.
“I would not put a number on that.”
While testifying, Morley tried to turn the tables on the NDP, saying he took notes in case the NDP tried to change the deal it made on the budget — and crediting both opposition parties with saying both plants should be axed before the McGuinty government decided to do so.
“I give you guys a ton of credit. You guys got there first. You were right.”
Morley said McGuinty had the final word on closing the plants.
On the Cavoukian report, which took issue with email deletions by other top Liberal political staffers in contravention of the Archives and Recordkeeping Act, Morley said he was not consulted. Nor was his name mentioned in the report, which has led to an OPP investigation into any potential criminal activity in missing emails.
“She (Cavoukian ) never discussed her report with me, she never asked me how I managed my records . . . as far as I’m concerned that report has nothing to do with me,” said Morley.
He told the committee he left a box of 300 documents on other matters, such as teacher negotiations, in the premier’s office that he took this week to the Archives of Ontario.
None of those documents were on the power plants, said Morley, who departed McGuinty’s office before compensation deals were reached with builders of the two plants.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Rob Ferguson
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