A BREATH OF FRESH AIR AT QUEENS PARK???

Revealed! Gas plant memos Dalton McGuinty wanted to write: Cohn

Forget the wild goose chase for 60,000 gas plant documents: Here at last is Dalton’s dirty little secret in leaked emails going back to 2011.

 

McGuinty <McGuinty@MPP.Ontario.ca >

Sent: Feb. 23, 2013

To: Kathleen Wynne <Premier@Ontario.ca >

Subject: Re: Excess Baggage!

Dear Kathleen,

Greetings from sunny South Carolina. Brought too much baggage (story of my life) and the airline lost my golf clubs.

Thanks for your Feb. 22 email below. Glad to hear no one has yet found my secret memos for the cancelled gas plants. As per your request, here is the elusive “smoking gun” email from the past election (forwarded below).

I realize the province faces a $240-million bill for cancelling the plants. But we gave voters what they wanted. Excess baggage? Nope. Nimby penalty.

All those earnest electricity planners chose the Oakville and Mississauga locations. People complained. We backed the bureaucrats against the Nimbys — until we were boxed in at election time.

Sure, the NDP wants a public inquiry and the Tories want more documents to back up (and sex up) their conspiracy theory. They think public hearings will shine a spotlight on a shadowy Liberal cabal that neutralized a gas plant in mid-campaign, without any governmental authority.

The truth is more mundane: I made a campaign promise, through the local MPP. And, unusually for me, I kept my word.

OK, I’m off to the golf course. Sorbara is lending me his spare clubs and caddie.

Remember: Delete the forwarded email below. It’s 17 months old but still makes me wince.

Dalton
 

From: Dalton McGuinty <Premier@Ontario.ca >

Sent: Sept. 24, 2011

To: Charles Sousa <Sousa@MPP.Ontario.ca >

Subject: FW: gas plants CONFIDENTIAL!

Dear Charles,

Just 12 days until voting day. As Liberal leader, I’m asking you to host a news conference in Mississauga this afternoon to announce the death of that gas plant you’ve lobbied against as a local MPP.

Please delete this email. I don’t want people to see me nakedly knuckling under to Nimbyism. But anybody who reads the newspapers (does anybody still?) can easily deduce what happened behind closed doors:

This isn’t rocket science, it’s political science. If we don’t act, the opposition will steal a half-dozen Liberal seats with their promise to cancel the plant.

Here’s our dirty little secret: We cannot legally kill the plant today. During elections I’m just a caretaker premier and the bureaucrats won’t heed me until I’m sworn in again. All we can do is make a campaign commitment — you know, a promise — to cancel the plant if re-elected. (Unlike my 2003 anti-tax pledge, I’ll keep my word this time even if it’s a career-limiting move.)

While the opposition cries coverup, watch for the auditor general to quietly follow the money and one day reveal the truly scandalous cost of our collective Nimbyism. Meantime, break a leg!

Dalton
 

From: Kathleen Wynne <Premier@Ontario.ca >

Sent: Feb. 22, 2013

To: Dalton McGuinty <McGuinty@MPP.Ontario.ca >

Subject: Excess Baggage!

Dear Dalton,

Still waiting for those secret emails you promised me. Missed you in question period. Andrea Horwath was meaner to me than she ever was to you — none of the deference she showed Premier Dad! All because your hapless Ontario Power Authority discovered yet more memos on the cancelled gas plant: 30,000 last September; another 26,000 in October; and 600 more mundane pages last Thursday.

Still no smoking gun. But every time the OPA screws up and coughs up more memos, the opposition cries coverup! Maybe we should just hand over your secret email from the 2011 campaign?

BTW, wasn’t such a bad week after all: high school teachers are restoring extracurriculars. Hah! I’ve cleaned up at least one of your messes.

Kathleen