AG says Oakville gas plant cancellation will cost $675M

Ontario's auditor general says the net cost of the Liberals' decision to cancel a planned gas plant in Oakville will be at least $675-million, far above the $40-million the government originally claimed.

But Bonnie Lysyk, the province’s recently appointed auditor general, also warned that the cost could go up by another $140-million, for a total of $815-million, because of transport tolls to move it to Napanee, Ont.

Earlier this year, Jim McCarter, the preceding auditor general, reported on the cancellation of a similar gas plant in Mississauga. That decision is estimated to have cost $275 million — millions more than the provincial government had claimed.

Added together it is more than $1 billion.

Opposition parties have accused the governing Liberals of cancelling the Mississauga and Oakville plants to save legislative seats during the last election.