Liberal Government to Make Ontario Families Pay $3,000 More a Year for Home Heating

QUEEN’S PARK – The Liberal Government has a plan to phase out the use of natural gas in the province of Ontario, at the cost of $3,000 more each year for affected Ontario households. Leader of the Official Opposition Patrick Brown used today’s Question Period to ask the Liberal Government why they continue to make life harder for average Ontarians.

“Despite the fact natural gas accounts for 76 per cent of heating in Ontario, we learned that the Liberals’ climate change plan will apparently phase out the use of natural gas,” said Brown. “But converting a home from natural gas to electricity would cost about $4,500. That’s in addition to the $3,000 dollars a year more it costs to use electricity over natural gas.”

Instead of natural gas, the Liberal Government is expecting Ontarians to heat their homes with among the highest electricity prices in North America. Since the Liberals took power in Ontario, hydro rates have gone up by more than 325 per cent.

“Naturally, the Liberal Government’s solution to Ontario’s skyrocketing electricity rates is to force 76 per cent of families and businesses that use more affordable natural gas to convert to electric heating,” added Brown.

“Does the Liberal Party think Ontario families can afford to pay an extra $3,000 a year in hydro?” he concluded. “Is this Government trying to make families and seniors a lot colder, or impoverished?”