Dalton McGuinty will make his first public appearance Tuesday since a report came out that found emails on the cancellation of two power plants before the 2011 election were illegally deleted.

The former premier, who quit as the MPP for Ottawa South last week, has been asked back to a legislative committee investigating the plants that were axed at a cost of $585 million to save five Liberal seats.

McGuinty faces grilling from opposition MPPs over a recent report by Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, who found top Liberal political staffers destroyed emails and documents contrary to the Archives and Recordkeeping Act.

That prompted a complaint by the Progressive Conservatives to Ontario Provincial Police, which is now conducting a criminal investigation.

“We understand now the proof there is of a culture of secrecy,” said Conservative energy critic Vic Fedeli (Nipissing), referring to portions of Cavoukian’s report that were critical of a “verbal culture” in McGuinty’s office that resulted in a lack of written records.

“We’ve got to see whether he ordered the cover-up and what makes them think they can run the province that way . . . he won’t have a pleasant time.”

Cavoukian will also appear before the committee Tuesday.

McGuinty long maintained the cost to cancel the plants in Oakville and Mississauga was $230 million, less than half the current estimate.

Despite repeated criticisms of Liberals over the power plant scandal, Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is downplaying odds party can win three byelections expected this summer.

“They’ll be challenging seats, no doubt,” Hudak told reporters Thursday of the ridings in Windsor, London and Ottawa, vacated after the resignations of two cabinet ministers and McGuinty.

“They have been long-standing Liberal seats,” added Hudak, whose party lost its long-held Kitchener—Waterloo stronghold to the NDP last September despite furor raging around the Liberals over the gas plants and contracts forced on teachers.

“We’re going to give it our best shot . . . byelections sometimes have local issues.”

Hudak accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of “half-truths” for promising to release all documents regarding the cancelled power plants and not delivering, given the findings of Cavoukian’s report.

“She already knew most of the trail had been covered up,” Hudak said of the

Questions were raised about Hudak’s leadership of the party after losing the Kitchener riding to the New Democrats last fall, following Tories’ failure to oust the Liberals in the 2011 province-wide vote.

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But a recent poll suggests the Tories could have a chance in Ottawa South, where Forum Research last week put the Conservatives at 37 per cent support, the Liberals at 34 and the NDP at 22 per cent.

Although the survey of 693 residents has a margin of error of 4 per cent, some Tories are quietly hopeful of a breakthrough in the riding held federally by McGuinty’s brother, David McGuinty.

Windsor—Tecumseh is up for grabs following the resignation of former finance minister Dwight Duncan last winter, as is London West, which was held by former energy minister Chris Bentley.

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