ERO 019-8307 Submission…

ERO 019-8307 Submission for Bill 165: Keeping Costs Down March 17th, 2024

Climate Action Newmarket Aurora is opposed to Bill 165 in its entirety.

Bill 165, Keeping Costs Down Act, has been tabled on the premise that it will help Ontarians by keeping their energy bills low, ‘to ensure fair and informed decision-making at the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to foster affordable communities’. What needs to be highlighted is that the Ontario Electricity Board’s oversight will be overruled and diminished, Enbridge shareholders will prosper, and the real energy costs will continue to fall into the lap of the consumer, taxpayers and homeowners. This bill should be called Keeping Costs and Emissions Up.
This Bill implies that the OEB is not holding ‘fair and informed hearings’. The OEB Pipeline Coordinating Committee reviews specific and detailed project environmental assessments based on the 1998 Ontario Energy Board Act , reports by energy companies and raises concerns prior to a project going to the OEB for approval. The OEB heard many submissions over the span of a year and also considered the future costs to Ontarians of expanding gas pipelines when cities and countries are banning fossil gas. It will be Ontarians will continue to pay for an under utilized system.

Moreover, new homeowners would not have to pay the supposed increase in hook up if this Bill mandated developers and Enbridge to start covering the cost instead of downloading it. Perhaps the Auditor General needs to review this in consideration of the profit margins of developers as well as the 2023 $43.6 billion profit for Enbridge shareholders when we are focusing on ‘affordable and sustainable housing’?

The government is stating that the OEB’s decision to say no to amortizing the cost of further gas pipeline infrastructure for new builds is ‘rash’ and ‘could cost’ new homeowners thousands more dollars to purchase a home. The OEB decision highlights the additional gas pipeline and hook up costs of urban sprawl plans, for which most of the homes will not be ‘affordable’. The OEB doesn’t wish to have amortization of the costs tacked on for the consumers for the next 40 years and states after more than a year long process of consultation with energy experts, financial research, and publishing thousands of pages of reports to this effect, that Enbridge and developers should have to pay to provide a service from which it will reap immense profit.

It is proven that air heat pumps drastically reduce energy bills, given less or no need for fossil gas, and therefore notably reducing its hold in the marketplace. This government refuses to legislate or offer wider incentives for air heat pumps to be included in new builds and yet also denies rebates to retrofit current homes unless those homes are already fully electric.

Let’s take more stock of energy costs. Before this government, off peak energy was 8 cents per kilowatt hour give or take and that was including the expected transition increase from fossil coal. Since this government, energy costs have risen and will continue to do so as market place comparisons show, with no substantial transition to another energy source to account for it. Wind and solar are producing electricity far more cheaply than fossil gas (approximately 10 cents per kWh less), and the price continues to drop for those utilities but not in Ontario. This government cancelled Ontario’s greater transition into that sector in 2018, costing $230 million. Additionally, The Ontario Court of Appeals recently found this government under this Premier’s leadership significantly lacking in necessary climate action; emissions in Ontario have increased under his watch. This will cost everyone more in insurance, property taxes, health care and food prices.

Coincidentally, this bill comes on the heels of the government pushing for gas plant expansions which municipalities have categorically said they will not have, increasing output from existing plants when many say its not needed, and not advertising that the cost of energy will double because of their current plan to use fossil gas for electricity generation for the foreseeable future. Moreover, this government has yet to share its carbon pricing plan (Bill 162) and the reduction at the gas pump ends in June 2024 but meanwhile the federal government’s Canada Carbon Rebate puts more money into the individual’s hand than many pay out and has been shown to shift industry into cleaner practices with less emissions.

If the government was really committed to lowering costs and climate action, in addition to air heat pumps, it would have legislated increased housing density percentages to prevent urban sprawl and the cost of more expanded infrastructure, and increased the percentage of required affordable housing for new developments. It has not. This will cause more emissions and more costs.

The Bill mentions maintaining customer choice. Again, providing a fossil gas choice is providing more costs to the homeowner down the line when fossil gas is no longer available, viable or permitted. Millions of consumers around the world and in Canada, including Ontario, are moving away from methane-heavy fossil gas because of the climate damage it does but also because of the health issues it silently bestows on its consumers, especially children. Enbridge advertising is like that of the tobacco industry who said it was trying to help people quit cigarettes and that vaping reduced the chance of certain cancers; yet it didn’t advertize what it could cause; we now know the damage. We already know the damage methane of fossil gas is doing. The government should be safeguarding the public and planet while being a leader of clean energy, clean homes, clean communities and clean economies.

The government’s ‘mandate to rebuild Ontario’s economy’ with this Bill, is false. The only economy it builds is that of fossil gas. Jobs and businesses exist in clean energies exist and could be increased if not for the misguided steps of this government, like not revisiting offshore wind which would on its own, meet Ontario’s energy needs. Global clean energy investment is overtaking that of fossil fuel yet this government would have us fall behind in that marketplace, keep our own energy costs up for the profit of a few, and continue to allow emissions to rise, costing us more across the board and losing investors.

If none of this is of consequence, then perhaps it might be knowing that this is the first time any Ontario government has tried to override the decision made by this independent energy oversight body while also eliminating its oversight for the future gas pipelines. The OEB’s role is to ‘protect the public and drive energy sector performance’. It makes ‘decisions and rules to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and that the energy sector is reliable and sustainable’. Fossil gas is one of the most costly sources of energy, is not considered sustainable, and is one of the worst contributors to the climate crisis through methane emissions.

The OEB is fulfilling its mandate and that means a significant loss of revenue for Enbridge and developers. This Bill will increase costs for homeowners and taxpayers. This Bill will continue this government’s path to ‘annihilating’ our province, our air and the global climate.

Climate Action Newmarket Aurora opposes Bill 165.