National Post, Robyn Urback
Last week, the Ontario Liberal Party said it would reimburse taxpayers for the $10,000 it paid a computer expert to allegedly wipe computer hard drives in the premier’s office. Sorry, the Liberals said. Our bad. Police are in the process of investigating the matter, and so the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne conceded that taxpayers probably shouldn’t get dinged for these seemingly nefarious expenses. And that’s absolutely correct; everyone knows that honest governments should foot the bills for their own alleged cover-ups.
The $10,000 from the government originally went to IT consultant Peter Faist, who is the spouse of former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty’s deputy chief of staff. According to police, Faist was hired by David Livingston, McGuinty’s chief of staff, to delete information from approximately 20 government computers relating to the cancellation of two gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville, which cost the province upwards of $1.1-billion. Faist did not have security clearance to access the computers, nor did he have an actual contract for the work from what he told police. That said, according to the Liberals, no one thought Faist was doing anything wrong. Read article