Top Liberal staffers — even in former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office — illegally deleted emails tied to the $585-million gas plant scandal, a parliamentary watchdog has found.

“It’s clear they didn’t want anything left behind in terms of a record on these issues,” Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said Wednesday.

Her findings came in a scathing 35-page report prompted by NDP complaints that key Liberal political staff have no records on the controversial closures of plants in Mississauga and Oakville before the 2011 election.

However, despite breaking the Archives and Recordkeeping Act and “undermining” freedom-of-information legislation, the scofflaws will not face penalties because there are none, said Cavoukian.

“That’s the problem,” she said, noting the inadequate legislation was passed by the McGuinty Liberals. “It’s untenable. It has to have teeth so people just don’t engage in indiscriminate practices.”

Attorney General John Gerretsen said the government would consider changes.

“Any law, in order to be effective, there have to be some sort of penalty provisions,” he said. “We’ll take a look.”

Cavoukian’s conclusions bolstered opposition charges of a high-level coverup of the costs of the plant closures, which McGuinty and key ministers originally claimed was $230 million.

Only in recent weeks did the higher tab of $585 million emerge, along with testimony from Ontario Power Authority executives before a legislative committee probing the closings that government officials had been warned a year ago the costs would be higher than $230 million.

The Cavoukian report, titled “Deleting Accountability: Records Management Practices of Political Staff,” names Craig MacLennan, a former chief of staff to past energy ministers Brad Duguid and Chris Bentley, and David Livingston, McGuinty’s last chief of staff, for failing to keep records.

MacLennan and Livingston did not reply to requests for comment. MacLennan now works for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., while Livingston works for the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais.

Several weeks ago, MacLennan testified before the legislative committee investigating the power plant scandal that he likes “to keep a clean in-box … I don’t know how to archive anything.”

Cavoukian called the “routine deletion of emails ... an attempt by staff in the former minister’s office to avoid transparency and accountability.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne, who took power Feb. 11, quickly distanced herself from McGuinty.

“Let me be clear. The practice in my office and in the office of my caucus and my cabinet ... has been to follow the rules,” Wynne said, citing training sessions for staff on keeping proper records. “We have done that from the moment we came into office.”

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Liberals “didn’t feel there was going to be any retribution for breaking the law … what an arrogant group.”

“We need to see some heads roll here,” said Progressive Conservative MPP Rob Leone (Cambridge).

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He repeated calls for a judicial inquiry and was critical of Wynne staffers for using private email accounts during the transition from the McGuinty premiership.

Cavoukian found the core problem was “the practice of indiscriminate deletion of all emails sent and received by the former chief of staff to the minister of energy” — a reference to MacLennan.

She stressed it’s impossible for citizens to hold governments to account if potentially important documents are destroyed.

“I am very disturbed the former minister of energy’s office produced absolutely no records … and that the former premier’s office had so few records,” Cavoukian said, noting the legal requirements to retain documents.

“It is simply unbelievable that MacLennan would have no understanding of this,” she wrote. “It strains credulity to think … no records documenting the decision-making process were ever created.”

Cavoukian also said it’s a “myth” that deleted emails and documents dating back three years to the Oakville closure announcement in October 2010 can easily be recovered.

The commissioner’s probe expanded when she learned that, as recently as this January, Livingston “had approached the secretary of cabinet about how to permanently delete emails and other electronic documents,” raising red flags about the possible elimination of records.

“While I cannot state with certainty that there was an inappropriate deletion of emails … it is difficult to escape that conclusion,” Cavoukian wrote.

Government Services Minister John Milloy said the minority Liberals are “committed to addressing the issues raised by the commissioner to ensure that situations as referred to in her report do not happen again.”

Cavoukian recommended a directive that a senior official in the premier’s office and every minister’s office be named accountable for records retention and training, and that freedom of information and protection of privacy laws be amended to make it a “serious offence to wilfully or inappropriately destroy records.”

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