On June 21, 2018, the Federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act received Royal Assent. The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act establishes a federal carbon pricing program on greenhouse gas emissions on any province or territory that does not have their own carbon pricing system in place. The Ontario cap-and-trade charge has ended. As a result, Ontario must comply with the Federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

Beginning April 1, 2019, to recover costs associated with meeting natural gas distributor obligations of the federal government’s Federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act and the Federal Carbon Pricing Backstop, a federal carbon charge will appear on Utilities Kingston customers’ natural gas bills, for gas delivered starting April 1.

This charge was approved by the Corporation of the City of Kingston council (Council approves budgets, rates for municipal utilities), and has been initially set at $.0406 per cubic metre so as to recover the initial cost of the Federal Backstop carbon price applicable to Ontario.

Consistent with other gas distributors in the province, Utilities Kingston will present this charge as a separate line item on customers’ bills. For presentation on customers’ bills, Utilities Kingston will separately identify the “Federal Carbon Charge”, including applicable administrative costs, as a new line item.

The annualized bill impact of the Federal Carbon Charge for a typical residential customer with consumption of 2,300 cubic metres is an initial increase of $93.38 per year, plus HST, commencing April 1, 2019. The total cost for a customer will depend upon how much gas they use.

For more information federal carbon pricing, visit the Government of Canada web page on Ontario and pollution pricing.