Liberal operatives wanted Dalton McGuinty to "plant his feet" and battle back against criticisms of the billion-dollar cancellations of two gas-fired power plants as the scandal rapidly heated up.

At one point, the then-premier's advisers even considered asking TransCanada Corp., the company building one of the plants, to help them fight an attempt by the opposition parties to obtain government documents related to the plants.

Newly released internal e-mails reveal the scramble behind the scenes to spin the cancellations, as the opposition and media started asking questions about the cost. The e-mails, recovered by the Ontario Provincial Police from government computers, were filed as part of a search-warrant application. The OPP are investigating Mr. McGuinty's former chief of staff, David Livingston, on breach-of-trust charges.

Story continues below advertisement

The police allegations have not been tested in court and no charges have been laid. Mr. Livingston has maintained he did nothing wrong. No one else is under investigation.

The Liberals pulled the plug on the gas plants in the Toronto suburbs before the 2011 election, in what was widely seen as a play to save Grit candidates from defeat. The government originally said killing the plants would cost $180-million; subsequent audits would later put the total as high as $1.1-billion.

As questions mounted, Mr. McGuinty's aides wanted him to push back.

"How about slightly unapologetic for tomorrow?" wrote Laura Miller, Mr. McGuinty's deputy chief of staff, in a July 16, 2012 e-mail to the premier's communications team. She proposed Mr. McGuinty say the province has "standards" about how far away power plants must be located from homes, and that those standards were the reason one of the plants was cancelled.

"I think he has to own it," replied Neala Barton, Mr. McGuinty's press secretary. "They will try to push him over, but he has to plant his feet."

But Mr. McGuinty's communications director, Wendy McCann, raised a red flag – the province did not actually have such standards for gas plants at all.

"It has to be true, or we will dig ourselves in deeper," she wrote, adding that coming up with the "standards" months after the cancellation decision just "sounds like an excuse, and it will trip us up. … Introducing a new reason now will make us sound like we are slipping and sliding."

Story continues below advertisement

On Friday, Ms. Miller told The Globe and Mail that the proximity of the gas plant to new condominium buildings really was the reason it was cancelled. Since there were already standards on the distance wind turbines had to be from homes, she said, Mr. McGuinty's staff wanted to know if there were similar standards for gas plants. "I suggested that since the proximity of the new residential housing was the reason for relocating the Mississauga gas plant, we should tell that story," she wrote in an email.

On August 28, 2012, Mr. Livingston e-mailed subordinates to discuss getting TransCanada's help. The Progressive Conservatives were pursuing a contempt-of-Parliament motion after the government refused to hand over documents on the plants to an opposition-controlled legislative committee.

"I can't imagine [TransCanada] would love having communications with them in the public domain. Is there anything constructive they could do to have an impact on the decision made?" Mr. Livingston wrote.

David Phillips, then chief of staff to the government house leader, replied that TransCanada could write to the committee saying it was "concerned" about the potential release of documents. He then drafted a lengthy list of suggested points for TransCanada to raise in its letter, including that the documents were "subject to solicitor-client privilege" and "commercially sensitive." He said TransCanada should tell the committee that releasing the documents would jeopardize talks between TransCanada and the province on the financial settlement for the cancellation.

"Might be good if they could stress they've been working on the matter for some time and feel that progress has been made … hint that they think they can settle it if given the opportunity," added Jennifer Rook, a staffer in Mr. Phillips' office.

It is not clear from the e-mails whether the government ultimately approached TransCanada about writing the letter. The company did not respond to a request for comment Friday.