OTTAWA No computer in Ottawa was accessed illicitly by someone using a super-account to delete damaging gas-plants documents, a government cybersecurity expert now says, contradicting testimony he gave to a Queens Park committee last week.

Shawn Truax was part of the government investigation into improper computer access that may have been used to conceal information about whether senior Liberals working for then-premier Dalton McGuinty knew that cancelling two unpopular gas-powered generating plants before the 2011 election could cost Ontarians as much as $1 billion, instead of the $40 million McGuinty and others estimated at the time.

The investigation scooped up 52 hard drives, including a handful from a provincial government office on Elgin Street, and last week Truax testified he believed one of them had been accessed using special privileges granted on the authority of McGuintys chief of staff, David Livingston. Police are now investigating whether Livingston committed a crime by, as they allege, handing those privileges over to an outside computer expert to erase files that government employees wouldnt.

Truax told the committee of MPPs hed have to check his notes to be sure, and promised to follow up with a letter spelling out the details.

Last week, trying hard to connect the affair to people now in the government under Premier Kathleen Wynne, Progressive Conservatives suggested the computer was used by current Ottawa South MPP John Fraser, who was a senior McGuinty aide before being elected his successor. He worked in the office in the 180 Elgin St. office where Truaxs people collected hard drives.

Actually, Truaxs letter says, his investigators didnt find that any computer in Ottawa was involved. They gathered up and scanned five computer hard drives, including Frasers, but they didnt find that any of them had been accessed in the manner in question.

I have confirmed that none of the hard drives obtained from the Ottawa location were in the group of 24 hard drives that we determined had been accessed by the (special) administrative access right, Truaxs letter says. I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to clarify my statements, and apologize for any misunderstanding that may have resulted from my testimony.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com

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No Ottawa computers implicated in gas-plant deletions, investigator says