Don’t hide the cost of cap-and-trade

Everyone seems to think it’s a good idea to let Ontario natural gas consumers know exactly how much of their monthly heating bill will go toward paying for the provincial government’s cap and trade program.

So why is the Ontario Energy Board so reluctant to do so?

Seventy five of 80 stakeholder groups consulted by the OEB said they wanted to see cap and trade costs broken out on consumers’ bills.

Even Enbridge and Union Gas agreed it was a good idea.

Now we learn that Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk commissioned a survey of ratepayers and found that 89 per cent of respondents “thought it important to disclose the impact of cap and trade on natural gas bills.”

Lysyk thinks it’s a good idea, too, and wants the OEB to reconsider the decision it made this summer to bury the cap and trade cost, estimated at about $5 per month in the “delivery” line of our natural gas bills when the program takes effect on Jan. 1.

Whether or not you agree with cap and trade — the Liberal government’s plan to have companies buy and sell pollution credits to reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions — it’s hard to imagine why anyone would not want the government to be as transparent as possible about its cost to taxpayers.

The OEB’s reasoning behind its decision against disclosing seems lame.

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

And the provincial government is refusing to get involved because the OEB is an independent regulator. How convenient. If anything, the OEB is coming off looking more like an arm of the Liberal party. Appearances count for a lot. Right now it appears the OEB is saving the government the monthly embarrassment of informing the electorate exactly how much cap and trade is costing it.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented for the OEB to do what the public, the gas companies and the auditor general clearly want. Quebec and British Columbia include the cost of carbon pricing as a separate line item on bills.

The Liberal government has already lost a great deal of the public’s trust over the skyrocketing cost of hydro in this province. Perhaps they should be bracing themselves for another wave of anger when cap and trade takes effect.

Its cost is not something that can or should be buried on a gas bill.