Premier Kathleen Wynne admitted it was a “big . . . bad mistake” to scrap power plants in Oakville and Mississauga after a report by Ontario’s financial watchdog found taxpayers are on the hook for up to $1.1 billion.

That number was the startling tally Tuesday from auditor general Bonnie Lysyk in a long-awaited report on the price tag for scuttling the Oakville generating station three years ago — the first of two cancellations to save five Liberal seats in the 2011 election.

Lysyk concluded the tab for cancelling Oakville and relocating the plant to Napanee could skyrocket to $815 million — dramatically more than the $310 million the Ontario Power Authority had estimated and exponentially higher than the $40 million the Grits initially claimed.

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Wynne was grim-faced as she faced questions about the report.

“Money is too tight for tax dollars to be spent in any way that is not productive,” acknowledged the premier, who inherited the problem from her predecessor Dalton McGuinty.

“It was a big mistake . . . it was a bad mistake,” she added, promising changes that will give municipalities more say over power plant locations.

The Oakville station was to be built by TransCanada Energy, which is being compensated for a number of factors, including the extra expense of shipping natural gas to the new eastern Ontario location — 240 kilometres away.

Lysyk’s 24-page report depicts chronic bungling — with the Ontario Power Authority approving the Oakville site despite local opposition and McGuinty’s aides assuring TransCanada it would be fully reimbursed, ignoring “protections in that contract that could have minimized the damages.”

To that end, Wynne also promised a prohibition on political staff conducting such negotiations.

“They should not have the authority . . . to bind the government to agreements when there hasn’t been due process.”

Compounding matters, Lysyk noted then-energy minister Chris Bentley ordered TransCanada to build the new plant in Napanee — against the OPA’s advice — despite the fact it would cost “significantly more” to ship natural gas there and electricity back.

“Hydro customers will be paying higher prices for electricity in the future as a result of not only the cancellation of the Oakville contract, but also of the OPA not being able to take full advantage of the terms within the Oakville contract that may well have enabled the province to get a better deal,” she added.

Opposition parties, which had also opposed the plants, said the revelations are the latest in a line of scandals plaguing the Liberals, including eHealth Ontario and the ORNGE air ambulance service.

“You and Dalton McGuinty made a snap decision to cancel gas plants with no thought whatsoever over their cost,” said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath slammed the expenditure of “over a billion dollars to save a few Liberal seats” but evaded questions on when her party would stop propping up Wynne’s minority government.

“I will take every step as it comes.”

Lysyk’s report is the second audit sparked by the controversial shuttering of the power plants. A probe of the Mississauga closure earlier this year concluded it would cost $275 million for that move, which was announced less than two weeks before the Oct. 6, 2011 election.

McGuinty’s $1.1 billion gambit helped the Liberals hold the ridings of Oakville, Mississauga South, Mississauga East—Cooksville, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, and Etobicoke Centre in that campaign.

TransCanada’s profit on Napanee “is higher than they would have made on the Oakville contract,” Lysyk told reporters.

The $815 million for axing Oakville and moving it to Napanee includes $675 million for gas turbines, transmission system upgrades and connections, with another $140 million possible depending on the cost of delivering natural gas there. That is subject to a National Energy Board hearing.

Lysyk’s report said her estimate varies from the OPA’s $310 million released last spring mainly because she assumed different dates for opening the Oakville and Napanee plants and another discount rate for future payments over the next 20 years.

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The OPA stood by its numbers, saying in a statement “the difference with the auditor general is based largely on the different assumptions used to calculate future costs and savings.”

Outcry over the gas plants triggered McGuinty’s resignation on Oct. 15, 2012 and, later, Bentley’s as energy minister and London West MPP.

But the former premier said in June while he regretted the hefty price tag “ultimately it is the right decision.”

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