County of Brant Council offered its support for the province’s potential next round of the Natural Gas Expansion Program during its regular Council meeting on Tuesday, September 9, 2025.
Back in 2015, Ontario launched its first program to help provide natural gas to underserved rural and northern communities through the Natural Gas Access Loan and the complementary Natural Gas Economic Development Grant.
Having recognized that many rural, northern, and Indigenous communities would be unable to afford the costs to extend critical infrastructure to their communities, the provincial government later launched the Natural Gas Expansion Program (NGEP). The program directs funding to gas distributors and encourages communities to partner with them to enable more affordable heating and energy options for communities to foster economic growth.
The NGEP has so far been launched in two phases, and since then, families and businesses across a total of 59 communities had the choice to switch to natural gas.
With that being said, the County of Brant explored opportunities to extend natural gas servicing to currently unserved areas through both phases of the NGEP, specifically for expansion projects in Harley and Glen Morris, both were unsuccessful.
The provincial government is now seeking input from municipalities to see how it can best support rural, northern and Indigenous communities with access to natural gas for development through a potential phase three of the NGEP.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Haile Gilmore, Project Manager for the County of Brant, brought forward a report recommending that the County endorse expanded access to natural gas as a means to promote residential development, economic growth, and affordable energy in rural communities.
The report also included feedback and a list of priorities to be submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Mines for the consultation process.
“Some of the priorities you’ll see listed in the report in the analysis section include things like prioritizing equitable access to small rural communities, prioritizing the importance of affordability, recognizing the cost of living is a key concern for our residents, and then also looking at how we can support sustainable, focused growth and complete communities throughout the County,” said Gilmore.
Councillor Christine Garneau, said that while Gilmore’s report mentions Harley and Glen Morris, she asked that residents in the areas of Colborne Street East, McBay Road and Hammond Road not be left out as a potential priority.
“At this time, this is just an engagement on this potential third phase,” responded Gilmore. “Once we get to a point where there’s actually a third phase, if it does come to fruition, that will be a great time to kind of take stock of these different communities and ensure Enbridge is aware of all of the different pockets of the community that are interested in expansion.”
Councillor Lukas Oakley then said he would not be supporting the recommendation to support the NGEP.
I’m going to have to speak in opposition of this recommendation and I’ll be voting against it. It’s largely predicated on the government of Ontario directing that investment in natural gas is the way to go, which is in direct contradiction to the recommendation of the independent Ontario Energy Board that was made, I believe, two years ago now,” said Oakley. “I think the Ontario Energy Board had things exactly correct in that this is an investment in dated technology, that in the long run, is going to cause severe environmental implications, as well as in the long-term, will cost our residents more money. So I will not be supporting this because there are other technologies that should be invested in.”
On the opposite side, Councillor David Miller said that he would in fact be in voting favour of the recommendation.
“I just want to highlight a sentence that Haile put in the report that says ‘at times, the electrical grid in rural areas can be unreliable.’ …It has been a terrible summer for power outages and there’s been a lot of food thrown away; I know at one point, the County was looking at opening up a cooling centre because it was hot and humid and the power had been out for about 24 hours,” said Miller. “And in Scotland, Councillor Garneau and I were talking to one resident who said every other house on their street has gotten a natural gas generator because the power outages in Scotland were just terrible. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a good electrical grid but we don’t have that yet, and so I think natural gas could certainly help fill that gap. …Natural gas isn’t just for heating homes, as we know, it can be used for hot water and for so many other things so I fully support this.”
Council then voted in favour of submitting the resolution and the list of key priorities to the Ministry of Energy and Mines as input for the NGEP consultation process for a potential phase three. The vote was carried on a vote of 10-1, with Oakley opposed.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
