8% Natural Gas Price Increase Effective October 1st

The Ontario Energy Board has approved natural gas price increases effective October 1^st.

Average bill increases are the range of 8%, and are caused by:

1. A dramatic 25% increase in the price of the natural gas commodity. This was caused by higher than expected demand, lower than expected production, and supply interruptions related to Hurricane Ida.  Corporations on fixed-rate plans are not impacted by this increase.
2. Relatively normal increases in the price to deliver/distribute natural gas to customers.  This impacts all customers regardless of supply arrangements.

The increases would have been even higher if not for an Ontario Energy Board approved “rate mitigation plan”.  In other words, instead of having one very large increase to reflect the market changes, the OEB is going to increase gas rates over time just to “catch-up”.  https://www.oeb.ca/sites/default/files/backgrounder-qram-20210923-en.pdf

Crossbridge budget templates are updated constantly to reflect the latest approved rates.  We don’t forecast rates, but we do use a Safety Margin to account for normal consumption variances and unforeseen market changes like this one.

We will be suggesting a higher than typical 5% Safety Margin to account for the “catch up” increases from the OEB rate mitigation plan.