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Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press Published Monday, March 31, 2014 11:17AM EDT Last Updated Monday, March 31, 2014 4:43PM EDT

TORONTO -- Ontario's Liberals have confirmed that an outside tech expert police allege was given access to 24 computers in the premier's office last year had a contract with the governing party that was cancelled just two days ago.

Government house leader John Milloy says computer expert Peter Faist was also under contract to the Liberal caucus office at Queen's Park, but that contract ended when former premier Dalton McGuinty left office.

Ontario Provincial Police, who are investigating the deletion of government emails related to the cancellation of two gas plants, alleged in court documents that the computer access was given 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 hard drives.

Progressive Conservative critic Lisa MacLeod says Faist was "under the employment of Kathleen Wynne" until two days after the OPP allegations were made public last week.

MacLeod calls word of Faist's contract with the Liberals a "bombshell" that she says "looks very damning" for the governing party.

She says it raises 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 apparent tampering of the computers in the premier's office.

Milloy said he didn't know how much Faist was paid by the Liberals and didn't say what the terms of the contract were.

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Tech expert allegedly linked to deleted emails had contract with Liberals