Former premier Dalton McGuinty’s government deliberately ignored a legal demand for top secret documents on the $585-million power plant cancellations in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election, New Democrat energy critic Peter Tabuns charged Tuesday.

The accusation came after former McGuinty chief of staff David Livingston testified before a legislative committee that the premier’s office was aware of the obligation but waited until negotiations to relocate the plants were complete before complying.

“It was pretty clear Mr. Livingston and the premier’s office thought they could set their own timetable,” Tabuns said, echoing concerns raised by opposition parties many times since the scandal erupted.

The demand came from a legislative committee in May 2012 and was not met until four months later, following a ruling from Speaker of the legislature, Dave Levac, that documents must be turned over.

“It’s not that we were ignoring it,” Livingston said under questioning during his second appearance before the committee. “The question was when it was going to be complied with, not if.”

The government, and then-energy minister Chris Bentley, were waiting for negotiations on a new location for a cancelled plant in Oakville to conclude before revealing details to avoid the release of sensitive information that would end up costing taxpayers more, Livingston said.

“It seemed unfair to me,” he added, referring to the demand. “It made commercial sense not to release them. I thought everyone would come to that view.”

The former chief of staff said “I don’t recall” when asked if the strategy was discussed with McGuinty, one of several occasions where he could not remember details on the file — something that also happened during his previous testimony in March.

Progressive Conservative MPP and energy critic Vic Fedeli repeatedly questioned Livingston on a lack of his own emails turned over to the committee — something for which he was singled out in a scathing report weeks ago by Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian.

Livingston said it was his habit, from previous years in the private sector as a banker, to delete emails in government when they were no longer required for briefings to the premier or other reasons, such as completing a task.

Fedeli, who was also named his party’s finance critic Tuesday, said that is “very suspicious” given that there were guidelines on saving relevant emails for the public record and suggested Livingston’s actions were to avoid scrutiny.

He called Livingston’s deletions a “freedom of information misdeed.”

The hearings into the plant cancellations, which opposition parties called a Liberal “seat saver” move to save Grit MPPs at taxpayer expense, resume Thursday.

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