Chatham-Kent council is declaring natural gas a vital energy product for southwestern Ontario with its latest resolution. South Kent Councillor Trevor Thompson feels it's critical to get neighbouring support. "It's easy to ignore one municipality, but it's a lot harder to ignore a whole group of municipalities saying the exact same thing," says Thompson. A leaked government document showed government plans to phase out natural gas use in Ontario. Premier Kathleen Wynne has since refuted the claims in the report and has stressed the importance of natural gas as part of Ontario's future energy mix. Thompson feels the resolution is necessary despite the province denying any plans of a natural gas phase-out after the report broke. "The outcry has been directed, has been focused," says Thompson. "Did we win the day? I don't know that we've done that yet it's hard to say what the future holds, but at the very least we've put a strong voice forward on this." Much of the concern regarding the potential phase-out of natural gas centres on the increased cost of other heating sources like electricity. Thompson says a move away from natural gas would be horrible for the greenhouse industry in Chatham-Kent and Leamington. "I can't imagine the heating bills on an industrial site if you had to switch over to electric no matter what sort of incentives [the government] is offering," says Thompson. "It would kill the greenhouse industry in southwestern Ontario." The Chatham-Kent resolution will be circulated at municipalities in Windsor-Essex, London-Middlesex and throughout the province.
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