GuelphToday received the following Letter to the Editor in response to a previous letter by Evan Ferrari, executive director of eMERGE Guelph.
Is Ontario going backwards?
I write in response to the Oct. 5 Letter to the Editor titled: Should Enbridge owe city $8.8M per year?
It really got me thinking. Is this another example of preferential treatment to fossil fuel companies at the expensive of “the little guy/us”.
It seems only fair if “cable, phone, fibreoptic, water, sewage, and Alectra/Guelph Hydro, provide more compensation for the use of city land, that Enbridge is required to do the same. If this happens in other provinces, “Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia”, why not in Ontario? And what can we do about it?
Answer: Write, email or call our MPP, Mike Schreiner and your city councillors to let them know this is important to you. With the loss of development charges being paid to the city, these funds will help with city expenses since $15 million has been cut to environmental and social services from 2025 Budget. Ideally, the city could use the funds for green projects that have been eased out the City Budget and would provide us savings in the long run.
Furthermore, it’s not just about whether the financial terms of the franchise agreement with Enbridge are “unfairly skewed in favour of the gas distribution company at the expense of municipal taxpayers”, it’s also about other fossil fuel related issues in Ontario. Let’s put things into perspective. The Ontario Energy Board ruled in Dec 2023 that current gas customers should not be paying for gas lines into new developments. The OEB is an independent agency assigned to overseeing and protecting the public from financial abuse. Their decision was based on the economics of the future of fossil fuels and they deemed any future fossil fuel infrastructure investment would not be wise long term investment.
This makes sense to me, but this OEB decision was shut down by the Province with no explanation as to why it is a good idea for gas customers to be investing in soon to be obsolete systems. Recent studies concur that using fossil fuel in our homes is not healthy, and with necessary carbon pricing, to ween us off fossil fuels, these energy sources will be getting more and more expensive. New homeowners don’t want to be locked into using fossil fuels when heat pumps, hybrid water heaters and induction stoves will be healthier, more efficient, greener and save them money.
And it’s not only about the franchise agreement with Enbridge and the squashing the OEB decision to hold back from new pipelines being installed in new developments, there’s still more. The current Provincial plan to add more energy to Ontario’s grid is via gas plants! How will this help us to meet our 2030 GHG emissions goals? There are thirty-five Ontario municipalities, representing about 60% of Ontario’s population, that have already passed resolutions requesting our Premier phase-out gas power as we once did coal. “Ontario can phase-out gas power by 2035 by tripling its wind and solar power and by investing in energy efficient storage”. I wonder if our municipality is one of the thirty-five to support the phase out of gas power?
Thank you Mr. Ferrari for bringing this issue to our radar on the same days we watch the destruction of the most recent hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida.
Let’s leave our children and grandchildren the possibility of a softer landing.
Every degree matters. Every action counts
Karen Rathwell
Guelph
