BradfordToday and InnisfilToday welcome letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). We received the following letter to the editor from reader David Hawkins.
Premier Ford’s “Keeping Energy Costs Down” Act, quashing the independence of the Ontario Energy Board, nears final debate and probable passage into law. What a pity for Ontario energy users wanting actual energy savings, clean heat plus cooling, and consumer choice in home expenses. This legislation is not for them. It’s for the well-connected, highly profitable, always polluting gas heat pushers.
Bill 165 amends the Ontario Energy Board Act (1998). It empowers the Minister of Energy, by use of a ministerial directive, to overrule an OEB order. Its immediate impact will be to negate major parts of OEB’s Dec. 21, 2023, Decision and Order which denied Enbridge Gas the privilege of offloading the cost of new gas lines and hookups to all natural gas consumers in the province. The company’s added levy on gas bills would span the next 40 years.
The consequence of the OEB order, according to energy industry consultants, Power Advisory, means new connections would have to be paid up front by new residential developers. The cost most likely would be passed on to new home buyers in subdivisions with gas appliances.
The OEB’s thoughtful decision considers Canada’s and necessarily Ontario’s commitment to the energy transition. The Board realized the future expansion of gas delivery infrastructure risks imposing a dated and dirty technology destined to become, for homeowners, stranded assets. Enbridge did not provide adequate assessment of the risk of stranded assets to show its spending plan is prudent. By the way, if one looks, there’s no mention of the energy transition or stranded assets in Bill 165.
With Bill 165, Team Ford lands another kick in the face with its oxymoronic name game. Remember the Build More Homes Faster Act which pleaded the desperate need to bulldoze sprawl all over the protected Greenbelt? That claim completely contradicted the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force which said urban infill could handle Ontario’s future housing target. No sprawl needed.
Keeping Energy Costs Down is not going to be achieved by Ford’s latest political power grab. All gas consumers will be additionally taxed for the expansion of new gas delivery, transport and storage. And natural gas prices have been historically volatile. So, on the face of it Keeping Energy Costs Down by big footing the Ontario Energy Board is not very likely to pay consumers dividends. Whereas, homebuyers could be pleasantly surprised to see how making clean and money saving decisions with proactive home investment could improve the affordability outlook. An easy-to-use calculator from the Canadian Climate Institute compares the cost of heating systems use.
Looks like Team Ford is angling to pick our pockets. Again. To avoid the new Enbridge infrastructure tax, and pay less-than-gas heat costs for non-carbon emitting home heating and cooling, there are options. Join instead of buck the energy transition. Decline owning a stranded asset. Consumers have the right to choose if they demand it.
David Hawkins
Bradford West Gwillimbury
