The provincial government is stonewalling attempts to find out how much it will cost taxpayers to compensate a Calgary company after the Liberals abruptly cancelled its contract to build a major power plant in Oakville, the NDP charges.

After the Star quoted sources as saying the government had a legal opinion that TransCanada Energy could sue for $1 billion over the controversial cancellation, the New Democrats filed freedom of information requests that have been repeatedly rejected.

“I can see no reason for them not to tell the public,” said NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns.

Energy Minister Brad Duguid scrapped the plant in October after months of determined opposition from local residents, prompting accusations the move was politically motivated to bolster the chances that Oakville Liberal MPP Kevin Flynn will be re-elected in the Oct. 6 election.

The Ontario Power Authority, a government agency that plans for future electricity needs, said the information requested by the NDP is a nine-page document “subject to solicitor-client privilege” and would reveal “financial, commercial or technical information . . . the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to be injurious to the financial interests of the government of Ontario.”

Releasing it could also harm future negotiations, the two-page FOI decision said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said any compensation for TransCanada has not yet been settled.

“There is a continuing, productive conversation with TransCanada . . . there’s really nothing to report by way of specifics at this point in time,” he said Friday after a luncheon speech to the Oakville Chamber of Commerce.

TransCanada had been awarded a 20-year contract to build and operate the plant.

The government had insisted for several years that the natural gas-fired electricity plant was necessary because of plans to phase out heavily polluting coal-fired generating stations by 2014.

But that changed following a spate of protests in the wealthy community, where residents were asked to contribute the equivalent of 5 to 10 per cent of their property taxes to the fight spearheaded by a group called Citizens for Clean Air, which went so far as to fly in famed California activist Erin Brockovich to headline fundraising events.

Headed by a high-powered board of directors that included a former president of Microsoft Canada, the group said locating the 900-megawatt plant near a school was dangerous.