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Ontario’s auditor general says the cost of the Liberals’ decision to cancel a planned gas plant in Oakville will be at least $675 million, far above the $40 million the government originally claimed.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk also warns the cost could rise another $140 million for gas deliveries to the new site of the generating station near Kingston.

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Lysyk also says the cost of killing the Oakville project is “significantly more than may have been necessary” because of a number of what she calls “questionable decisions” by the premier’s office.

The auditor’s report puts the total cost of scrapping the Oakville gas plant and another in neighbouring Mississauga at a minimum of $950 million, and it could reach almost $1.1 billion.

[np_storybar title=”Scott Stinson: With the final bill for the gas-plants now in, it’s all the more evident why McGuinty quit” link=”hhttp://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/10/08/scott-stinson-with-the-final-bill-for-the-gas-plants-now-in-its-all-the-more-evident-why-mcguinty-quit/”]Anyone who had paid any attention to the Liberal gas-plant controversy over the past year or so would know that it is a mess of the highest order: poorly sited facilities that were part of a poorly conceived energy plan, followed by two politically motivated decisions that were executed either with no awareness of the costs to be borne by taxpayers and electricity ratepayers — or with some awareness of the costs, but total disregard for them.