Article content continued

My shock and my concern was crystal clear

Wallace criticized the McGuinty government’s handling of the gas plant cancellations, and he complained that the affair put him in a position where he had to choose between serving his political masters or serving the public interest.

“I owe a broader duty of care to the office of the premier,” Wallace said — not to the person who occupies that office. “I owe a broader duty of care to the people of Ontario.”

The expensive cancellations should have been handled by “legal contract-holders” — provincial agencies, represented by public servants — and not McGuinty’s staff, the 30-year public servant told the justice committee, which is investigating the affair.

“My preference would have been that the gas-plant contracts not be cancelled, and if they had been cancelled as a result of a legitimate political decision, the unwinding be left to the legal contract-holders,” he said.

Wallace told the justice committee he hadn’t raised the fact that Livingston had asked him how to wipe computer hard drives in the premier’s office during previous testimony because he didn’t take it seriously.

“I did not understand at that time that the passing comment by Livingston was actually anything serious,” he said. “I learned that through the police investigation, and when I learned that this had in fact happened, my shock and my concern was crystal clear.”

Police allege Livingston gave access to an outside computer expert, the boyfriend of another senior Liberal in McGuinty’s office, to 24 computers in the premier’s office in February 2012.