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“Those are two people that could shed a lot of light as to what actually happened,” said PC energy critic John Yakabuski. “There are a lot of questions still to be answered, but the Liberals don’t want to hear those answers come out.”

The Liberals’ decision to shut down the gas-plant hearings show Premier Kathleen Wynne is only paying lip service to her claims of running an open and transparent government, said NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

“Throughout this session, Liberals have been trying to whitewash the gas-plant scandal,” she said. “But Laura Miller and Peter Faist, two Liberal insiders who were, frankly, at the centre of this scandal, are still being protected.”

Deputy Premier Deb Matthews said the committee had heard months of testimony from dozens of witnesses and now it was time to hear its recommendations.

“There’s a time for good things to come to an end,” Ms. Matthews said. “It’s time for that to wrap up.”

Meanwhile, the premier’s office confirmed Thursday that the OPP served a search warrant in November on IT staff at a provincial cyber security office in Toronto.

‘There are a lot of questions still to be answered, but the Liberals don’t want to hear those answers come out’

The warrant asked for the electronic mailbox and its backup tapes for Ms. Miller and for Mr. McGuinty’s former chief of staff, David Livingston, between May 1, 2012 and Feb. 11, 2013 — the day Kathleen Wynne was officially sworn in as premier.

In a previous court document, police alleged that Mr. Livingston gave Mr. Faist access to files in the premier’s office that were then wiped clean.