OFA commented on the Ministry of Energy and Electrification consultation regarding community access to natural gas and the future of the Natural Gas Expansion Program (NGEP).
Our comments highlighted:
- prioritizing access to agricultural, industrial, and commercial customer expansions will enable additional residential customer access,
- access to natural gas for the agricultural sector significantly supports economic development in rural communities,
- there are unique opportunities to produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) in Ontario using agricultural biomass,
- there are unique opportunities to reduce the cost per residential connection by considering potential non-residential customers in NGEP proposals,
- the agricultural sector actively works with natural gas distributors to explore community expansion projects, and
- the success of NGEP should include measures beyond cost per customer connection, to reduce barriers preventing access to natural gas development in rural communities, by considering commercial customer opportunities.