Liberals to repay $11,000 allegedly paid to wipe computers

Under pressure from opposition parties, the Liberals have agreed to repay $11,000 billed to taxpayers for the alleged scrubbing of computer hard drives in the office of then premier Dalton McGuinty.

The payment was first revealed last week in an Ontario Provincial Police search warrant application as part of an investigation into deleted documents in the $1.1 billion gas plants scandal that has continued to dog Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Her office was keen to distance the current Liberal administration from McGuintys, which ended in February 2013.

The Liberal partys executive council made the decision to ensure no tax dollars are expended for work performed in the office of the former premier in relation to matters currently under investigation by Ontario Provincial Police, Wynnes office said in a statement.

With HST, the total will come to $11,017.50.

Police allege the money was paid to Peter Faist, a computer expert who is the spouse of former McGuinty deputy chief of staff Laura Miller, in an arrangement made through the taxpayer-funded Liberal Caucus Service Bureau.

Although it would be inappropriate to prejudge the outcome of the ongoing investigation, in light of this new information the premier has concluded that tax dollars should not have been expended for the work performed, the statement from Wynnes office added.

Opposition parties were quick to pounce on the repayment, saying it links the Wynnes administration to the cover-up of deleted gas plant documents.

In no way, shape or form does this absolve them, said Progressive Conservative MPP John Yakabuski, a member of the legislative committee probing the scandal over the plants in Mississauga and Oakville axed by McGuinty before the 2011 election.

The fact theyre repaying this money from Liberal coffers proves this was a political action.

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Liberals to repay $11,000 allegedly paid to wipe computers

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