Dear Minister Smith:

The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce and the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission work closely on efforts to enhance our local economic environment. We are writing to express our support for Bill 165, Keeping Energy Costs Down Act.

We are concerned with the recent Ontario Energy Board decision that eliminates the customer attachment revenue horizon from 40 years to zero years would force new customers to pay for their gas connections upfront. These proposed changes would negatively impact the affordability of and accessibility to energy infrastructure in Thunder Bay and region. Such a significant increase in the costs of construction of housing, commercial and industrial projects will threaten the viability of economic development opportunities here and across the Province. We therefore applaud and support the decision of your government to intervene through Bill 165 to override the decision of the Ontario Energy Board.

Reliable and affordable natural gas infrastructure is essential to our local economy. While we support the need to continue to electrify heavy industries where possible and to avoid forcing new industrial endeavours to turn to natural gas due to the lack of electrical capacity, we recognize that there are industrial processes that realistically cannot be electrified. Furthermore, natural gas plays a critical role in decarbonization for industries that can lower their emissions by switching to natural gas from higher emitting fuels.

In addition, we welcome the changes to Leave to Construct regulations through Bill 165 that allow small pipeline projects that cost between $2 and $10 million to be exempt from leave-to-construct requirements. We believe this change will help accelerate the buildout of energy infrastructure and focus the OEB’s approval process on larger, more complex projects.