Petition to List Cap-and-Trade Charges as a Separate Line Item on Natural Gas Bills
To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
WHEREAS, 76% of homes and businesses in Ontario rely on natural gas for their heating needs; and
WHEREAS, private sector estimates show cap-and-trade will add approximately $475 to the cost of heating a home with natural gas each year; and
WHEREAS, in May 2016, a third party researcher conducted a survey of residential natural gas users and found that 86% of customers want to see the costs associated with cap-and-trade listed as a separate line item on their natural gas bills; and
WHEREAS, other jurisdictions with carbon pricing plans such as Quebec and British Columbia list the charge as a separate line item to help facilitate recovery of the costs from the program; and
WHEREAS, the stated intent of cap-and-trade is to affect consumer behavior towards environmentally friendly practices and energy conservation, and hiding cap-and-trade costs will hinder this objective;
THEREFORE, we the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to take action to ensure that fees associated with cap-and-trade are listed as a separate line item on natural gas bills so that customers may easily and readily identify how cap-and-trade charges were calculated.
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