NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says she can chop hydro bills up to 30 per cent, building on the Liberal government’s new rebate of the 8 per cent provincial HST on electricity.

Horwath’s plan would allow consumers to opt out of time-of-use pricing, cap profits for private power producers supplying the grid and return Hydro One to full public ownership by buying back shares.

New Democrats would ask the federal government to scrap its 5 per-cent HST on electricity bills under the 13-page proposal unveiled Monday, ahead of the government’s promised rate-relief package expected soon.

Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault has promised a host of new measures to ease the burden of hydro costs on families and businesses.

“We’re at a tipping point in Ontario and we’ve got to take bold action,” Horwath said, noting hydro prices have doubled in the last decade and vowing to renegotiate or cancel expensive power contracts if feasible.

“Electricity isn’t a luxury. It shouldn’t be priced like one,” she added, faulting Premier Kathleen Wynne for not acting on the hydro rate file until she ran into “political trouble.”

Rival parties and at least one energy expert were skeptical of some elements in the plan, questioning its numbers and saying that turning back the clock won’t fix problems in an electricity system that needs to modernize.

“She’s appealing to nostalgia,” said Professor Warren Mabee, director of the Queen’s University Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to just go back in time, like Donald Trump?”

Progressive Conservative MPP Todd Smith, his party’s energy critic, doubted the feds will scrap their 5 per cent portion of the HST on hydro.

Cutting millions by altering the rates charged to Ontario Power Generation for water rushing over its hydroelectric dams and using it to subsidize high rural electricity delivery rates is a “shell game,” Smith said, echoing a comment from Mabee.

“The intentions are good, but there are a lot of holes,” Smith told reporters, saying a buyback of Hydro One shares could cost double what the NDP is budgeting.

Horwath slammed the Tories and their leader for not having a specific plan to cut hydro rates with the next provincial election due in 16 months.

“Nobody knows who Patrick Brown is. Nobody knows what he wants to do, except that he’s been an elected politician for 17 years, nine of which he was in a Harper government that did a lot of cutting and a lot of privatization.”

The governing Liberals said they have already cut rates up to 20 per cent in the most rural parts of the province and 8 per cent across-the-board by instantly rebating the HST on bills.

“That would be very difficult,” Thibeault said of the NDP pledge to cut rates up to 30 per cent in rural areas and as much as 20 per cent in urban centres.

“It’s concerning for me that they’re just spouting off some numbers without actually looking into the overall costs of the entire system.”

Under Horwath’s plan, customers could opt out of time-of-use pricing, which charges higher rates for power during the day and has a lower, off-peak rate from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and on weekends and holidays.

That would allow them to pay 10.3 cents per kilowatt hour, the same off-peak rate under time-of-use pricing, a system brought in several years ago to encourage people to avoid using electricity during peak daytime hours.

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A government official said that figure is too low, and 11.1 cents is more realistic. The official added that the NDP plan to use the province’s remaining Hydro One dividends to buy back shares would gobble money now earmarked for health care and social programs.

Thibeault signalled in November the government is willing to allow people to opt out of time-of-use. These might include retirees who are home all day when rates are high. Pilot projects to research options are about to begin.

Horwath said an NDP government would attempt to renegotiate expensive private power contracts (as the Liberal administration did with deal with Samsung), but did not build any assumptions about that into its plan.

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