A protest against Bill 165 “Keeping Energy Costs Down Act” was held outside Ontario Energy Minister and Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith’s office on Friday.
The proposed bill would give the Ontario government time-limited authority to set the revenue horizon for residential, small commercial and small farm customers.
This would effectively reverse a December 2023 decision by the Ontario Energy Board that called to reduce the amortization period for the cost of installing new natural gas connection.
If the bill passes, the government plans to put in regulations that resets the revenue horizon for natural gas connection costs to 40 years.
The protest was organized by Nicole Chevalier, who is against the bill.
“They are working against an Ontario Energy Board ruling that is saying it’s bad for consumers to have these Enbridge subsidies happening and they’re working against that ruling to put subsidies in place and that’s what Bill 165 is about,” Chevalier tells Quinte News.
“It’s very dishonest and it’s very bad for the environment and it’s supposed to be passed next week during Earth Week.”
Chevalier says the protest is one of a number taking place across Ontario.
President of the Bay of Quinte Green Party, Lori Borthwick, also took part in the protest.
She says the party has concerns about the government’s push to continue to use natural gas.
“It essentially locks the new homes, the 1.5 million new homes, that the government is hoping to have built in Ontario into fossil fuel gas, as they will be funding Enbridge to build natural gas pipelines out and as we’re in the middle of a climate emergency and carbon dioxide levels are much higher than they should be and we’ve seen the impacts of weird weather caused by a climate emergency,” Borthwick explained.
“We feel that it’d be much more efficient and better long-term thinking to ensure that they’re using geothermal or air-to-air heat pumps to heat their homes.”
As of April 16, the bill has been ordered for a third reading.
