By Dylan Freeman-Grist and Sierra Bein
The deletion of emails related to the Ontario Liberal Party gas plant scandal originated from a current Ryerson employee’s computer, according to reports filed in the Toronto Star on March 26.
The article titled “Police allege breach of trust by former McGuinty staffer over computer access,” by Star reporter Rob Ferguson outlines an OPP report (not yet tested in a court of law) claiming Wendy Wai, Ryerson’s operations coordinator was granted illegal “unrestricted” access by her former boss David Livingston.
According to the story, Wai had access to several employees within the Premier’s office before and after Wynne’s rise to power while she served as the executive assistant to Livingston who was McGuinty’s chief of staff.
According to a report filed by Det.-Const. Andre Duval the access granted to Wai by Livingston represents a “breach of trust”, which could carry a five-year prison sentence for the former chief-of-staff.
The access was allegedly misused by the premiere’s former deputy chief of staff, communications and strategy Laura Miller who allegedly granted Wai’s password and computer to her “boyfriend” Peter Faist, a government outsider, who then allegedly deleted the files.
The Liberal Party has been accused of minimizing the costs of canceling two gas plant projects. It is being alleged that specific figures related to the cost of the cancelations were deleted at some point during the transitioning of power between Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has estimated that the power plant cancellation cost taxpayers $1.1 billion. At the time of cancelation the Liberals estimated the cost to be $230 million.
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