PCs, NDP fume as Wynne ducks question period
TORONTO - An outside tech expert who police allege was given access to 24 computers in the Ontario premier's office last year had a contract with the Liberal party that was just cancelled on the weekend, Premier Kathleen Wynne confirmed Monday.
Computer expert Peter Faist also had a contract with the Liberal caucus bureau at Queen's Park, but that ended when former premier Dalton McGuinty left office, Wynne told reporters at an unrelated event in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
"He did not provide any services to the Liberal caucus services after I came into office," she said. "He did provide some services to the Liberal party (but) once we discovered that he was part of the issues surrounding the allegations ... his services were terminated as of Sunday."
Provincial police, who are investigating the deletion of government emails related to the Liberals' cancellation of two gas plants, alleged in court documents that Faist was given the computer access by David Livingston, McGuinty's former chief of staff.
The court documents, released last Thursday, also allege that Livingston sought access to the government computers to "wipe clean" the computer hard drives. The allegations contained in documents have not been proven in court.
The Progressive Conservatives said Wynne's admission added weight to their claim that she was in charge early last February when the hard drives were apparently wiped clean, even though she wasn't officially sworn in as premier until Feb. 11.
"It is very clear that the mastermind behind wiping all those hard drives was, up until these revelations became very public, ... (was) somebody who was under the employment of Kathleen Wynne," said PC critic Lisa MacLeod. "Never in a million years did we expect that he was still on the payroll."
MacLeod said Faist's contracts raise more questions about Wynne's role in the attempted coverup of the Liberals' decisions to cancel gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election at a cost to taxpayers of up to $1.1 billion.
The Liberals accused the Conservatives of playing "dirty politics" by trying to link Wynne to the latest police allegations.
The government said Faist's IT company billed the Liberal caucus $159,727.28 between June 2010 and January 2013, and also billed the Liberal Party of Ontario about $60,000 for IT maintenance between March 2011 and last Sunday.
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