List carbon fee separately on gas bills, chamber of commerce says
Not showing it undermines efforts to fight climate change, business group says.

TheStar.com
Dec. 20, 2016
Rob Ferguson

The push to list a new carbon fee of $5 a month separately on household natural gas bills in the New Year has won the backing of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Not flagging the charge – one of the measures funding the government’s $8.3 billion cap-and-trade plan to fight climate change – undermines that effort, the business group says.

“The entire premise of a cap and trade program is to place a price on carbon in order to motivate consumers to take action and change behaviour,” the chamber said in a new report about the province’s energy system.

“To not provide this price to consumers could make it more difficult to achieve GHG (greenhouse gas) emission reductions.”

Opposition parties and Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk have been pressing Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government to list the fee, which will average $5 monthly for homeowners. It was first announced last spring.

The premier and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault have refused, saying the quasi-judicial Ontario Energy Board has ruled the fee can be buried.

Thibeault told reporters earlier this month that the board is an independent agency with sole authority over how natural gas bills are presented.

“I am okay with the decision of the OEB,” he said after the auditor general’s annual report said “more transparency is required” over the fee, with a survey finding 89 per cent of respondents want it listed separately.

Officials at the energy board have acknowledged that local utilities and natural gas users have pressed for more clarity over the carbon fee.

The Progressive Conservatives and NDP have accused the government of burying the fee to quell criticism while gaining political advantage by making sure electricity bills will show the 8 per cent provincial portion of the HST is being waived starting in January.

When the issue first flared in August, Thibeault’s office said, unlike natural gas bills, it has regulatory authority over hydro bills.

Not having the fee listed separately could also make it easier for the government to increase it without consumers noticing, critics have warned.

“Cap and trade-related costs should be a separate line item on natural gas bills in order to provide greater transparency and a visible price signal to customers,” the chamber added in its submission to the government as it develops a long-term energy plan to be finalized next spring.

Next month, Ontario joins Quebec and California in a greenhouse gas-emissions market, putting a cap on the release of carbon gases and allowing companies to trade emission credits if they are under their limits.

That gives them an incentive to reduce emissions and improve their profits, while still lowering the overall levels of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

Wynne’s plan to fight climate change includes programs to help Ontarians make their homes more energy efficient, a 4.3 cent a litre carbon fee on gasoline and a cash-for-clunkers program to encourage low- and moderate-income drivers take old cars off the road.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray said last week that details on energy-efficiency programs will be announced early in the new year.