Before a controversial gas plant was moved from Oakville to Napanee, was Cambridge considered a potential destination?

A Progressive Conservative MPP claimed Tuesday that the deal was “all set” before unknown factors took Cambridge off the table, but Cambridge’s mayor says discussions between the city and the Ontario Power Authority never moved past a preliminary standpoint.

In the run-up to the 2011 provincial election, the governing Liberals scrapped their plan to build a power plant in Oakville.

Since the election, the Liberals have felt heat for that decision from opposition parties, and a legislative committee has been looking into the issue.

Alicia Johnston, a former communications director for former premier Dalton McGuinty, testified at the hearings Tuesday.

Johnston said she was never involved in decision-making on where to locate gas plants.

PC MPP Vic Fedeli took issue with that answer, saying Johnston was “heavily involved” in discussions to relocate the Oakville plant to Cambridge.

“You had press releases written,” he said.

“It’s all set, it’s ready to go, the mayor’s on side. Why didn’t it go to Cambridge? What happened? How did it end up 250 kilometres away, at great expense, in Napanee?”

Johnston responded that the question would best be addressed to people who had more to do with the decision.

“I was never part of any negotiations or conversations with Cambridge or any other community,” she said.

“That simply was not part of my job. My involvement, like on any announcement, would be to prepare documents.”

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig said he was surprised to learn of the exchange and hadn’t heard anything about a gas plant in Cambridge since 2009.

At that time, the city had received inquiries from several operators and 12 potential sites had been identified.

“Personally, I was opposed to having it here at all. It never got to that stage, thankfully,” he tells CTV News.

“In terms of where it was going to go I was not on board with them, and in terms of having it somewhere else in the region, I would have preferred that.”

The city’s biggest concern, Craig said, was that any plant be located away from residential areas.