NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wants Premier Kathleen Wynne to give electricity ratepayers a $100 rebate to help ease the pain of skyrocketing hydro bills.

In a letter sent to Wynne Tuesday night, Horwath, who holds the balance of power in the minority legislature, urged the Liberal government to adopt the New Democrats’ plan to curb energy costs.

“Families and businesses need sky-high hydro bills brought back down to earth. That is a priority for me,” she wrote in the missive obtained by the Star.

Significantly, Horwath’s latest note does not say whether Wynne could avert a spring election by implementing NDP proposals, as happened last year.

Instead, she made a campaign-style pitch for a $100 rebate for 4.4 million customers, which would cost $440 million and go to residential consumers, farmers and small business owners, and berated the Liberals for cancelling gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election.

“People resent the non-stop reckless waste by this government, like your decision to burn $1 billion of their hard-earned tax dollars on the gas plants scandal — a monumental failure of leadership,” wrote Horwath.

“They have been troubled to learn of raids on your government by the Ontario Provincial Police anti-rackets squad as part of a criminal investigation into the cover up of that scandal,” she continued.

While the Liberals already have the “clean energy benefit”— a 10 per cent discount that appears on hydro bills, costing the treasury $1 billion annually — Horwath insisted more could be done.

She wants to end the practice of exporting subsidized power to New York and Michigan by “taking Ontario hydro sales out of the hands of speculative energy traders,” a cap on the pay of utilities’ CEOs and a merger of various agencies.

As well, she wants the auditor general to review all private power contracts.

Tuesday’s letter is the second Horwath has sent to Wynne in the past two weeks.

Last month, she warned she would topple the Grits if the upcoming budget slapped “any new taxes, tolls or fees that hit middle-class families.”

That was a shot across the bow at Wynne’s proposal to bankroll new transit infrastructure.

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But the premier has not ruled out any levies to pay for transportation infrastructure to deal with gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area that costs the economy about $6 billion annually in lost productivity.

“I’m not playing ‘Let’s Make A Deal,’ ” Wynne said Feb. 18 when asked about addressing any of Horwath’s potential conditions for not defeating the Liberals.

Because Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has said all along his party would vote down Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s spring budget, all eyes are on Horwath to see if an election will be triggered.

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