Ontario New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives are demanding an emergency meeting of the legislative committee probing the gas-plants debacle in light of the recovery of deleted Liberal emails.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto—Danforth) said Thursday a session is necessitated by new information emerging around the Liberals’ $585-million cancellation of two power-plants to win five seats in the 2011 election.

“If the government can find the emails that were deleted by the energy minister’s chief of staff, they should be getting to work finding the emails deleted by the premier’s chief of staff, principal secretary and energy adviser,” said Tabuns.

“You don’t bother covering up, unless there is something to hide. Ontarians want to know what the Liberals were so desperate to keep hidden.”

Tabuns told reporters at Queen’s Park that Premier Kathleen Wynne needs to pull out all the stops to ensure any other missing emails are found.

“Ontarians want to know what the government is doing to recover the emails deleted by the premier’s chief of staff, principal secretary, and senior energy adviser.”

On Wednesday, Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian reported that some deleted Liberal emails related to the cancellations had been recovered — despite the government’s earlier assurances to her they couldn’t be located.

“I was dismayed to learn that my office had been misinformed by Ministry of Government Services staff regarding the existence of records that would have been relevant to the special investigation report that I had released on June 5,” said Cavoukian.

“I am appalled that we were provided with incorrect information during the course of my investigation that was misleading,” she said, adding she will prepare an addendum to her searing 35-page special report on the missing emails issued five weeks ago.

At the time, Cavoukian castigated Craig MacLennan, a former chief of staff to past energy ministers Brad Duguid and Chris Bentley, for illegally deleting emails linked to the Mississauga and Oakville plants.

She also criticized David Livingston, former premier Dalton McGuinty’s last chief of staff, for failing to preserve records. It is unclear if Livingston’s emails can also be retrieved.

Government Services Minister John Milloy said Wednesday that “ministry staff are still in the process of identifying and producing the records and will provide them to the committee as soon as possible.”

The blame for the failure to locate MacLennan’s emails in time for Cavoukian’s report last month apparently lies with bureaucrats in the Ministry of Government Services.

Deputy Minister Kevin Costante has apologized in writing to Milloy, his political master.

“I regret that we were unable to find this information earlier,” Costante wrote the minister on Wednesday, explaining MacLennan’s emails were found in a “secondary storage” hard drive.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean—Carleton), whose party also wants the committee to resume sitting earlier than its scheduled August return, says it’s “a cover-up.”

While some 130,000 gas-plant related documents have already been released and Wynne has admitted McGuinty made a “political” decision to scrap the plants and apologized for the fiasco, the NDP and the Tories believe July hearings would be useful electorally.

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That’s because byelections are being held on Aug. 1 in Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Scarborough—Guildwood, Ottawa South, London West, and Windsor—Tecumseh.

Because the standing committee on justice already agreed to rise until next month it isn’t immediately known if it can be reconvened in July.

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