When an Ontario man received a natural gas bill for almost $2,000 last month, he thought it was some kind of mistake.
"All of a sudden I got this huge bill and it just didn’t make any sense,” Ashmeed Ali of Innisfil, Ont. told CTV News Toronto.
Ali was told his bill was large partly due to the fact his gas usage had to be estimated for the past five months since Enbridge has a shortage of meter readers to get exact readings.
Still, Ali said there should have been a better way to let him know such a large bill would be coming.
“You can't send someone paying for a service a bill one year down the road and say this is your bill; you owe almost $2,000. That’s just not fair,” he said.
Enbridge said right now there is a perfect storm of reasons why your heating bill is going up, including three natural gas rate hikes this year alone.
Enbridge is paying more for natural gas. As a result, it passes down those extra costs to customers as part of its regular rate changes every four months, which are passed on to customers without markup.
“It's really due to the conflict in Ukraine and we also have increased domestic demand and an increase in the demand for liquefied natural gas," said Andrea Stass, Media Relations Manager with Enbridge.
Electricity, propane, and heating oil have all gone up in price this year, along with natural gas which is used by more than 60 per cent of Canadians for home heating.
Enbridge said homeowners who are on monthly equal billing plans should also expect to see a large increase in their bills.
"We have seen three successive price increases during that period. So (with equal monthly billing) you're really making up for that all at once, which is why it may feel like a larger amount than what people have been used to,” Stass said.
According to Ali, the last time he had his meter read was in June 2022, which is why Enbridge had to use estimated monthly readings.
The company said it currently has a shortage of meter readers in some areas of the province.
“We don't have enough meter readers, so that has caused us to have to estimate for a number of months in some cases,” Stass said.
Ali was told he could read his own meter to avoid big bills, but that’s not something he says he is prepared to do.
"It's not my job to send a reading to Enbridge. That's not the service I’m paying for, and I am paying for a service,” he said.
Ali was told he can pay the $1,960 bill in installments, along with paying his natural gas bills for this winter too.
"It's hard on a person to pay that much,” he said.
Now is a good time to make sure your home is ready for winter by changing your furnace filter, and sealing up leaks and drafts.
Anyone with issues paying their heating bill can check the Enbridge website for government programs that can help.
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