TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government likes to talk about protecting hydro ratepayers but does nothing to stop lavish spending on entertainment by local utilities, the New Democrats charged Tuesday.

The NDP released documents obtained under freedom of information showing Hydro Ottawa spent almost $30,000 last year on box seats at National Hockey League games.

The government has banned such spending by provincial energy agencies, but Premier Dalton McGuinty washed his hands of the Hydro Ottawa situation because the utility is municipally owned.

"I'm going to let city council in Ottawa speak to those kinds of issues," McGuinty told reporters. "Believe me, I've got enough on my own plate."

The province could easily stop Hydro Ottawa and other local utilities from spending big bucks on entertainment by passing a regulation to prohibit the practice, said New Democrat Howard Hampton.

"The Liberal government talks one line about protecting hydro ratepayers and trying to ensure people can pay their hydro bill while they condone this sort of executive-at-the-trough behaviour," said Hampton. "If the McGuinty Liberals were really serious about protecting hydro ratepayers, they could change the regulations tomorrow."

Hydro ratepayers in Ottawa will be "rightly outraged" to see their bills rising while the local utility buys luxury box seats to Senators games, predicted Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

McGuinty shouldn't be trying to duck the issue by claiming it's a responsibility of Ottawa city council, added Hudak.

"Ottawa families are struggling to pay their hydro bills -- it's happening across the province -- and now we're seeing this kind of abuse," he said. "Sadly, it looks like local utilities are just reflecting the culture of entitlement that has grown under the McGuinty government."

Rosemarie Leclair, the CEO of Hydro Ottawa and the soon-to-be-confirmed chair of the Ontario Energy Board, told a legislative committee Tuesday that she was "not directly involved" in the decision to buy the Senators hockey tickets.

"The event that you're talking about was an outreach to our key accounts to engage them in conservation programs," said Leclair. "One of the ways of attracting attention is certainly to go to venues that people want to go to."

Energy Minister Brad Duguid said it wasn't up to him to "pass judgment" on the actions of Hydro Ottawa, but added the provincial energy agencies have saved $1 billion by becoming more efficient.

"I've asked them to be very, very frugal and they have been," said Duguid. "Everyone of our energy agencies have reduced their operating budgets in the last year and we're going to continue to work with them to ensure value for money."

The documents show Hydro Ottawa spent $18,579 for 16 tickets per game to four games with the Senators to "present information on conservation and demand management programs" to key customers.

On another occasion, Hydro Ottawa paid $8,637 for 36 tickets to one Senators game last October to host electrical contractors and property managers, and spent about $1,232 to pay for a portion of the cost of 112 tickets to an NHL game for staff and their families.

The utility, which has about 300,000 customers, put out a release Tuesday afternoon saying it has "no plans to purchase tickets for Ottawa Senators games in the future."