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The report acknowledges that the decision to cancel and relocate two Ontario gas plants in 2010 and 2011 cost a lot of money. Too much money, in fact. In future, governments should refrain from drawing these “unacceptably high” costs, says the committee. Harsh, right? And if that wasn’t scathing enough, the report goes on: the government failed to sufficiently consult with local municipalities when initially deciding the locations of the two power plants. This was wrong. In future, local communities should be “more engaged” in the planning process for these projects. Burn. Ouch.

The committee goes on to remind us that all three parties in the legislature at the time had pledged to cancel the plants. Former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion testified to that. So did Oakville Mayor Rob Burton. And former premier Dalton McGuinty. Indeed, the report refers to this all-party consensus at least eight times, lest we fail to consider what former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak might have done had he won the election in 2011. (He probably would have moved the gas plants and fired a bunch of teachers — can you imagine?!)

The report concludes that the Ontario government was merely “listen[ing] to the concerns of residents” when it decided to cancel and relocate the two power plants, and that the staff involved generally acted in “good faith.” It makes no mention of the level of cynicism behind the decision to cancel an unpopular project in a hotly contested riding on the eve of an election, at horrendous expense. Nor does it remark on the ongoing Ontario Provincial Police investigation into allegations of deleted emails in the premier’s office regarding the gas plants. But then again, why would it? With a Liberal majority, the government doesn’t need to even feign real introspection anymore.