Southern Bruce municipalities support EPCOR's Common Infrastructure Plan for natural gas

Kincardine, Huron-Kinloss and Arran-Elderslie have sent a letter to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), stating their support of EPCOR's Common Infrastructure Plan (CIP) to serve their respective communities with natural gas services.

Dated Oct. 13, it states that the three municipal governments that comprise the Southern Bruce group have devoted the past six years to achieving access to natural gas for their residents, businesses and farms.

"This time-consuming and resource-intensive initiative continues to be critically-important to the future well-being and prosperity within our region," states the letter. "This collective work also represents a powerful example of how small municipalities can effectively and co-operatively work together to achieve creative solutions to benefit their communities through providing access to lower-cost energy alternatives."

The letter states that if Southern Bruce had not developed a comprehensive business case and then pursued its international, competitive solicitation process to obtain proposals from potential Canadian and American natural gas providers, Ontario would not have the opportunity to now welcome EPCOR, a multi-billion-dollar, 100-per-cent municipally-owned Canadian company and new entrant into Ontario's natural gas sector.

Southern Bruce's continued support for EPCOR and its CIP application are based on the following key factors and considerations:
 

• The municipalities, particularly Huron-Kinloss and Arran-Elderslie, have a significant proportion of rural and agricultural consumers. A critical distinguishing feature of EPCOR's proposal from the very beginning was the commitment to serve ALL Southern Bruce communities.

 

• The municipalities continue to face serious and acute challenges with respect to infrastructure renewal. In working with EPCOR, Southern Bruce hopes to transform this daunting challenge into an opportunity. Only EPCOR has come forward with the interest, experience, creativity and financial capacity to present an interesting and compelling vision to explore synergy savings in areas such as telecommunication network expansion and water/wastewater renewal and expansion with a view to reducing costs as part of its construction of the new natural gas distribution system.

 

• The Southern Bruce municipal councils have already all approved making a direct financial contribution toward the proposed natural gas access project in an amount equivalent to the municipal property tax that would be recovered on the new natural gas infrastructure for a minimum period of 10 years. This is estimated at a net present value of $3-million to $5-million which is a significant amount for small communities.

 

• In its CIP, EPCOR has agreed to provide the Southern Bruce municipalities with a royalty payment amounting to one per cent of anticipated net revenues. That is estimated to be $500,000 in total over 10 years. Southern Bruce is pleased to advise the board that it will forgo collection of this royalty fee for the first 10 years to further assist the overall economics of the project.

"In summary, Southern Bruce supports EPCOR as its preferred provider of natural gas services," states the letter. "We strongly encourage the OEB to make a speedy determination in this matter in order to conclude the regulatory process within a reasonable timeline so that construction and operation of the new natural gas services system and services can be provided to our citizens and communities as soon as possible."



To view the EPCOR and Union Gas CIP proposals, visit:

www.rds.oeb.ca/HPECMWebDrawer/Record?q=CaseNumber=EB-2016-0137&sortBy=recRegisteredOn-&pageSize=400