More than ever, Dalton McGuinty needs to recall Ontario’s legislature [power plant issues] – Globe and Mail Editorial (November 3, 2012)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

The continued slow drip of damning information being gleaned from the thousands of pages of correspondence and legal documents related to the Ontario government’s cancellation of a power plant in Mississauga is starting to add up.

The latest, revealed in The Globe and Mail, shows just how eager Premier Dalton McGuinty was to kill the partially constructed plant, and how willing he was to spend taxpayers’ money to do it – even as his province faced serious deficits and he would soon be calling on public-sector workers to accept wage freezes. More than ever, Mr. McGuinty should recall the Ontario Legislature and allow it to properly examine the government’s actions.

The documents reveal to what great extent the Mississauga plant consumed Mr. McGuinty and some of his ministers and deputy ministers. According to internal correspondence, the Premier began talking to his staff the day after he was elected about finding ways to keep his ill-advised promise to close the plant, asking them to “be creative.”

The documents also show the government overpaid to settle an unrelated lawsuit with the developers in order get them to agree to stop construction: A judge had recommended $5-million but the government paid $10-million.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/more-than-ever-dalton-mcguinty-needs-to-recall-ontarios-legislature/article4852915/#