Editor,
I read with interest the letter from Meaford resident Melissa Tervit (April 4) on Bill 165 and the response from Enbridge Gas (April 18). As a lawyer who acted in the Ontario Energy Board proceeding that Bill 165 will overturn, I can confirm that Ms. Tervit is correct and Enbridge Gas is wrong.
Enbridge says that Ms. Tervit is sharing misleading and inaccurate information that could have damaging ramifications. That is baloney. Ms. Tervit is absolutely correct that Bill 165 will allow Enbridge to spread the cost of new gas infrastructure across all ratepayers, potentially increasing costs for everyone. Bill 165 will allow developers to get free or highly discounted methane gas pipelines to their developments and throughout their developments. This will cost gas ratepayers roughly $250 million annually. This $250 million will be added to the accumulated capital costs that all gas ratepayers pay down over time. It is not a loan to the new homebuyers – they pay the same gas rates as everyone else.
To put it simply, if you have a gas line you will be paying to hook new developments up to the gas system.
This is a terrible investment for gas customers. That is why the Ontario Energy Board ordered an end to that system. They are the experts in this and made their decision after reviewing thousands of pages of evidence. Bill 165 runs roughshod over this evidence-based process. With Bill 165, Enbridge is succeeding in getting what it wanted through lobbying when it could not get it from a transparent regulatory process.
Methane gas (aka natural gas) causes one-third of Ontario’s climate pollution. We need to be drastically cutting back, not subsidizing more gas pipelines and more gas use – especially when those pipelines have 60-year lives and electric heat pumps are the cheapest way to heat homes. Bill 165 is bad for customers, bad for home buyers, and bad for the environment. But it is good for Enbridge, which will literally earn billions more in profit because of the government’s actions. Which begs the question: who should you believe, the fossil fuel company with billions in profits on the line or the independent energy regulator tasked with protecting the interests of gas customers?
Kent Elson, Toronto
Lawyer for Environmental Defence in Ontario Energy Board Hearings
