The Liberals’ decision to kill controversial gas-powered generating plants in two Grit-held GTA ridings will cost Ontario taxpayers more than $1 billion, an industry source says.

“It is big money for sure, I would put a lot of stock in that,” the electrical industry veteran said Monday, noting builders of the plants will be need to compensated for their costs, as well as future profits lost from abrogating lengthy contracts.

Critics say Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty’s weekend move to scrap a 280-megawatt plant on the border of Mississauga and Toronto smacks of political cynicism given that construction is well underway — and continued Monday.

Almost a year ago, McGuinty cancelled a $1.2 billion, 900-megawatt power plant in a Liberal-held Oakville riding, but he insists a gas-powered plant in the Holland Marsh north of Toronto in a Progressive Conservative seat will go ahead, despite howls of protest from residents and environmental concerns.

After speaking to a packed women’s luncheon, McGuinty refused to talk about the financial penalties facing the province for cancelling the two projects, but insisted the Mississauga plant will be moved to different location rather than killed outright.

“(The cost of cancelling) will be a subject of continuing conversation,” said McGuinty, who has been highly critical of Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s promise to tear up a green energy deal in which Samsung is making a $7 billion investment in the province.

Eastern Power, the builder of the gas-powered plant near Sherway Gardens mall, did not return telephone calls Monday.

Meanwhile, Hudak issued an open letter to McGuinty asking him to release the contract for the cancelled Mississauga plant, the cost of cancelling it and where it will be built — before the Oct. 6 election.

“For six months, he (McGuinty) said we needed this plant in Mississauga, then 11 days before the election he does a flip-flop that would make an Olympic gymnast proud,” he said.

Hudak said the Tories want to convert the coal-fired stations in Nanticoke and Lambton to natural gas, noting that both communities want them.

Ironically, McGuinty criticized NDP Leader Andrea Horwath earlier this month when she suggested a contract awarded a Montreal firm to repair GO Train cars should be ripped up and given to a provincially owned company in North Bay. He said it sends the wrong message to investors.

The New Democrats said in a statement they never supported the Mississauga power plant, which is not necessary, but called on McGuinty to “come clean” and reveal the cancellation costs and a new site before voters head to the polls.

McGuinty defended the weekend announcement, which he hinted was coming back in June when residents had begun protesting the issuance of a building permit, saying the project proposed six years ago was not close to residential buildings. Condos have since popped up around the site, and he noted that any public support has evaporated.

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“We’ve got to be very careful where we locate these kinds of things,” he said.

With files from Rob Ferguson

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