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Continued from page 1 Code name would protect public interest: Flynn The provincial government insists there was nothing sinister behind code-naming the controversial scrapping of the Oakville power plant "Project Vapour" in confidential e-mails. The term appears in some of the 20,000 pages of internal missives released just last Friday, which followed last month's initial 36,000-page document dump related to the cancelled gas-fired plant in Oakville and another in Mississauga. Also, emerging in the second wave of paperwork was an e-mail blackout within the Ministry of Energy. It was ordered when news broke that the Liberals were cancelling the facility in Mississauga during the last provincial election. "There is to be no e-mail traffic on this issue," stated an e-mail from deputy minister David Lindsay. "This is a campaign announcement, not a government announcement." "They created code name Vapour to essentially hide the power plant conversations that were happening," said Tory MPP Rob Leone (Cambridge), during a press briefing Wednesday. Leone was the MPP who made the original motion for the document release, which was later ordered by Speaker Dave Levac. But Energy Minister Chris Bentley's press secretary, Jennifer Kett, said it's "routine practice" to use "project names" between government officials and political staff during commercial negotiations. Recipients of the e-mails included the Premier's former chief of staff Chris Morley and high-level bureaucrats. 7 · Friday, October 19, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com The terms Vapour and Project Vapour came to light when 20,000 pages of internal Liberal missives were released last week, following last month's initial 36,000-page release. The terms are used on a handful of the 20,000 pages. Flynn -- who admitted he was not aware of the code words at the time of their use -- said the use of code names is standard practice. "Whether it was called Project Vapour or not -- I certainly wasn't aware of anything being called Project Vapour -- but does it matter at the end of the day?" he asked. "I was aware the town did not want the power plant in Oakville, I did not want it in Oakville, eventually, the Premier did not want it in Oakville. Yet, they signed an agreement so they needed to somehow get out of that agreement and there was a negotiation that took place." Further, Flynn noted the PCs have used code words in the past, such as the term Market 2000 during the privatization of Ontario's energy. "It's nothing they haven't done in the past," he said. "This is a red herring. These guys are on a fishing expedition." Flynn said the word vapour could be linked to the Oakville power plant because the proposed plant would have been water cooled and thus capable of sending water vapour from its cooling towers into the air. "That was a real safety concern amongst all the other health concerns expressed by the residents," Flynn said. "It's nothing they haven't done in the past. This is a red herring. These guys are on a fishing expedition." Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn Regarding the e-mail blackout, ministry spokesperson Georgina Kourakos said former deputy minister Lindsay was correct in saying the Mississauga announcement wasn't government direction. "(In) the interest of non-partisanship in an election period it was not appropriate to use ministry e-mail to speculate about the matter," Kourakos said. "This is and continues to be a standard practice during any election period." A finance committee had been tasked with looking into the matter, but that was killed when Premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued Parliament Monday ahead of his resignation. The Tories charged Wednesday that shuttering Queen's Park was a way to avoid fallout from the latest disclosure for McGuinty. Even if code names are standard practice, NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said they hinder public access to information. "For us, it looks like there are a lot more documents still to come," he said, repeating the opposition allegation that the Liberals are hiding information. The government has said the cancellations cost $230 million. The opposition has claimed the price was closer to $700 million and a move to save Liberal seats during the last election in communities where the plants were unpopular. 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