July 11, 2012

Today, the Standing Committee on Estimates sent a report to the Speaker of the House to rule on whether or not the Minister of Energy, Hon. Chris Bentley, will be found in contempt of the Legislature. Rob Leone, MPP for Cambridge, Michael Harris, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga and Rick Nicholls, MPP for Chatham-Kent-Essex, cast votes in favour of the report.

This comes a day after the McGuinty government finally revealed a $180 million price tag for scrapping the Mississauga gas plant.

“The Minister continues to shirk his responsibility to the people of Ontario by failing to table documents in this Committee,” Leone said Wednesday. “He has repeatedly gone out of his way to conceal the cost of this government’s gross mishandling of two separate power plants, resulting in $180 million that should have been put towards Health Care and Education.“

A year after building and cancelling a gas-fired power plant in Oakville, the Liberals followed suit in Mississauga, building another plant amid vocal community opposition, and promptly cancelled it days before the October 6th election, when political convenience prevailed.

Harris highlighted the Liberal government’s mismanagement and waste on this file by listing several examples the relocation costs could have been used for.

“The $180 million the Liberal government wasted on its seat-saver program in the last election could have sent more than 27,000 post-secondary students to school for the year,” Harris said. “To put it into perspective, that amount could have covered the tuition of the entire student body at the University of Waterloo for one year.”

The report was sent to the Speaker’s office today where it will be reviewed and ruled upon when the House resumes for the fall session. If found in contempt, the Speaker could issue a warrant for the documents, while the Minister himself could be censured.