Auditor: make natural gas bills clear

Survey shows customers want to see cap-and-trade costs spelled out separately on own line

TORONTO — A survey conducted at the behest of the auditor general suggests nearly all Ontarians who heat their home using natural gas want to see the costs of cap and trade clearly displayed on their bills — and so does the auditor herself.

The Liberal government’s plan to have companies buy and sell pollution credits to reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions is expected to add about $5 a month to home heating costs, but those increases will be buried in the “delivery” line on natural gas bills.

The Ontario Energy Board announced this summer that cost effects of cap and trade, which comes into effect Jan. 1, will not appear as a separate line item on consumers’ bills for natural gas.

Ontario’s auditor general commissioned a survey of natural gas ratepayers and it found that 89 per cent of respondents “thought it important to disclose the impact of cap and trade on natural gas bills,” according to the auditor’s recent annual report.

“More transparency is still required by disclosing the portion of charges in natural gas bills attributable to the cap-and-trade program,” she wrote in the report.

The OEB’s response to the auditor was that it will hold a hearing that will assess the “reasonableness of the cost consequences” of the natural gas distributors’ cap-andtrade compliance plans, and in the public notice for that hearing there will be a mention of the $5 monthly estimated impact on bills.

“All of the natural gas utility business costs are within the delivery line so it just makes sense to include it there,” wrote OEB spokesperson Karen Evans.