[LINK] "Cancelled Mississauga power plant cost $275 million: Ontario auditor general"

[rfmcdonald]

Rob Ferguson and John Spears' Toronto Star article goes into the gory details. Suffice it to say, for those who aren't familiar with the case, that the decision to shut down the (needed) power plants was was made on the eve of the last provincial election by the Liberal government in a desperate effort to keep seats in Mississauga.

Ontarians are paying twice for a single power plant, Auditor General Jim McCarter says in a scathing report that found it cost $275 million to scrap a generating station in Mississauga and move it to Sarnia.

That’s $85 million, or 45 per cent, more than the $190 million former premier Dalton McGuinty claimed, prompting opposition parties to charge the government “lied” and providing fresh ammunition for a potential spring election.

The plant across from Sherway Gardens was well under construction and scrapped less than two weeks before the provincial vote of Oct. 6, 2011, a move Premier Kathleen Wynne admits was “politically motivated” to save Liberal seats.

McCarter said compensating the plant’s builder for that decision cost taxpayers “a lot.” New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives quickly piled on.

“Families are stuck with the bills,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters as the audit noted $190 million will come from taxpayers, with the other $85 million will come from electricity rates.

[. . .]

He denied the government lied with the $190 million figure even though McCarter said the Ontario Power Authority knew last summer it would be “shovelling cash out of their jeans” to the tune of $270 million.

“We have been extremely transparent,” Chiarelli said, adding “all parties made the same promise” to scrap the plant that faced community opposition.