Doug Ford is promising to cut hydro rates by 12 per cent if he wins Ontario's spring election.
The Progressive Conservative leader says he will cut rates through a variety of measures that would save the average ratepayer $173 a year.
The Tory plan would see the government give ratepayers the dividends it gets from its share of the partially privatized Hydro One.
It would also shift the cost of energy conservation programs from hydro customers to the tax base.
Ford also says he would also place a moratorium on new energy contracts and renegotiate existing deals where possible.
Ford has criticized the Liberal government's Fair Hydro Plan, which borrows billions to reduce rates by 25 per cent, and has vowed to review it. But he says the Tory plan would be in addition to the Liberals' rate cut.
Brady Yauch, is an economist and executive director of the Consumer Policy Institute, and he says these ideas, while they sound good, they probably won't work.
"It's often very expensive to renegotiate contracts, the gas plant scandal is a perfect example of trying to go back to redo something you've already signed."
Yauch also adds that moving giving the dividens back to ratepayers, is a case of moving around the shells.
"Everyone needs to recognize that if you take it away from hydro bills, you take it away from the social services you were using the money for before."
(With files from Canadian Press)