SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
February 26, 2024 10:15AM

I want to thank my colleague for his excellent comments, echoing the minister’s comments that we have a pragmatic approach here in Ontario. I would like the member to speak a bit about the difference between gas as a heating source as opposed to an electricity source. It makes up less than 8% of our electrical grid, yet we know that it makes up almost two thirds of our heating requirements across the province.

I’m wondering if the member could please speak to the ongoing role that natural gas is going to play in this province moving forward.

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I appreciate the member’s comments about following facts and evidence, so I’d like to introduce some evidence that was submitted by our Auditor General in May of last year. We’ve reduced our greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 by 27%. We’re 90% to our target. We’re leading the country. When we green our steel production and we get our small modular nuclear reactors online, we’ll be at about 35%. That’s a fact.

I’m impressed that you read the decision, but I’m wondering if you read E.B.O. 188, which is the policy which dictates how the regulator is to decide rate changes. And 2.2 says, “Specific parameters of the common elements include the following:

“(a) a 10-year customer attachment horizon;

“(b) a customer revenue horizon of 40 years from the in-service date of the initial mains.”

Will you admit that this is a departure from the status quo, that our gas bills today incorporate a 40-year window, and that the regulator has departed from that practice, contrary—

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I want to thank my colleague for her comments and her very accurate description of the OEB and the regulatory framework—the governing legislation. The OEB is governed by seven separate acts, including the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998. And I want to thank her for her comments on the regulatory regime.

But my question for my colleague is, from 1960 to today, when we look at setting rates, we factor in the cost of the supply—the capital costs involved and the supply and delivery of the goods, which in this case is natural gas. I’m wondering if my friend could comment on the impacts of taking a 40-year horizon and bringing it to zero.

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