Ontario Liberals: Lies, damned Lies, and statistics

The above quote, absent the “Ontario Liberals” is attributed to Disraeli, British PM and was later popularized by Mark Twain. That expression seems to reflect itself strongly in the ongoing enquiry into the Ontario gas plant moves with all of the Liberals appearing before the Justice Committee echoing common themes; “we were told the cost of the Oakville gas plant move was $40 million", “the NDP & the PC parties wanted to move it too,” and the best one out of the mouth of the former Premier; McGuinty said his office couldn’t have been expected to have “the capacity” to do that kind of figuring, he said, and didn’t.

McGuinty was of course referring to the ability of calculating the additional costs (over and above the “sunk” costs) of the Oakville move. It is important to remember that the Oakville plant was cancelled in 2010 and negotiations with TransCanada were an ongoing thorn that resulted in McGuinty ordering David Livingston, CEO of Infrastructure Ontario to take over those negotiations. Later McGuinty appointed Livingston as his “Chief of Staff”. So was McGuinty saying he had no confidence in his Chief of Staff? As the CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, Livingston was responsible for the spending of billions of our tax dollars on hospitals, court houses, etc. so perhaps the Justice Committee should also examine the books of Infrastructure Ontario when they finish this enquiry.

The new Minister of Energy, Bob Chiarelli, blasted his opposition critics in the Legislature May 1, 2013 for not knowing the costs stating;

“I have in my hand a memorandum of understanding dated September 24, 2012. The same day that this memorandum was dated, it was posted on the website of the Ontario Power Authority. I find it absolutely appalling that that critic did not read this document. Not only that; he did not read the 261-page contract that sets out the arrangement between TransCanada and the province on this particular issue.  It’s very, very clear from this document that there are sunk costs. That number is identified. There’s a range of other items, savings as well as additional costs, that are included in this document. So the whole world knew, including him, if he had read this document, that there were other costs and savings that had to be calculated in the Oakville plant. Disgraceful.”

Interesting that the Minister would make that point mere days before Dalton McGuinty would testify, under oath, to the Justice Committee that his staff were not capable of doing the same calculations. Does the Minister's “disgraceful” remark also apply to the former Premier and his staff? Read more »
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