Dalton McGuinty says moving gas plants wasn't politically motivated

Dalton McGuinty has kept quiet in the nearly three years since he resigned as premier of Ontario, but in a new book he penned on his political career, McGuinty says he did the right thing by moving two gas plants prior to an election campaign.

He spoke to Ottawa Morning radio host Robyn Bresnahan on Friday about the book and hiscontroversial, highly publicizeddecision to canceltwo gas plants in the Toronto-areaa move the province's auditor general saidcost about $1.1 billion.

"I did what I had to do, given my circumstances," he said, likening the role of a premier to a party "liver" that absorbs toxins.

"And one of your responsibilities on the way out is to take those [toxins] with you, and to leave your successor a fighting chance."

Politics didn't play role in decision, McGuintysays

Asked by Bresnahanif McGuintyreallyclaims politics never played a role in thedecision he made to move the gas plants, McGuinty insisted it didn't.

"I relocated two gas plants for the same reason that I initiated full-day kindergarten, adopted the HST and shut down our coal plants. It wasn't the pressure that was brought to bear on me by the opposition parties who insisted that I relocate the gas plants," he said.

"I moved those for the right reasons," he said, adding that claims the party deleted emailspertaining to the gas plants "is speculation at best."

• Ontario Liberals paid $10,000 to have gas plant data erased: OPP
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• We kept few records, McGuinty tells OPP

He said the only mistake he made about the controversial file was to appointan arms-length agency to find the locations for the plants in the first place.

"It was wrong to have those gas plants located in those communities. ... It's wrong to take a gas plant the size of a hospital and locate it near a hospital. ... We couldn't even locate a single clean-energy wind turbine in that spot because it would have been too close to homes and schools and hospitals," he said.

"What you probably don't know is that they sited 18 [locations] in the right way, they got two wrong. And when they get things wrong, it's up to the premier to intervene."

In February,a legislative committee report into the deletion of government emails on two cancelled gas plantsmade 16 recommendations, including strengthened rules on document retention and more community involvement in the siting of large-scale energy projects.

But opposition parties slammed the report, saying the committee did not hear from PeterFaist, an information technology contractor allegedly paid by the Liberal Party to delete emails related to the cancellations, and hispartner, then senior Liberal aide Laura Miller.

Ontario Provincial Police continueto investigatewhether McGuinty government officials illegally destroyed any documentation related to the cancellations.