Dave Barton drives an electric vehicle and has solar panels on the roof of his family’s house. But the mayor of Uxbridge Township – equal parts bedroom community, farmland and greenbelt located about 45-minute drive northeast of Toronto – is an unabashed supporter of natural gas.

“We are located in the Durham region, which is home to two nuclear plants in Pickering and Darlington. But when we have extreme cold snaps, our grid doesn’t produce enough power to charge our electric cars and power our heat pumps,” says Barton, who has served as the township’s mayor since 2019.

“Many people who live here have natural gas generators as a backup. When a tornado came through the region a couple years ago, my wife went to the ER at the hospital to work and I left home to focus on our community’s response to the emergency, knowing that my generator would mean my child would be just fine at home.”

So it pleased Barton to see Sandford, a remote rural community in the township, connected to Ontario’s growing natural gas pipeline network for the first time in January.

“Natural gas gives communities and businesses the opportunity for choice. It is significantly less expensive than propane,” says Barton, who graduated from the same high school where his parents met a generation earlier.

“We have a significant agricultural industry here. We want to make sure every farmer and resident has access to clean natural gas because it is an affordable and environmentally responsible option.”

Gerrit Herrema, a fourth-generation farmer in Uxbridge Township, hopes rural Ontario’s natural gas network continues to expand.

“We need to dry the corn we grow, and natural gas is a much more affordable option than propane. Natural gas is also a lot more affordable than electricity for heating the amount of water we need for our dairy operation for activities like cleaning our milking equipment,” says Herrema, who operates a mixed farm with dairy and 800 acres of soybeans, wheat, oats, barley and hay.

“Long term, we need western Canadian oil and gas to come east. A national energy strategy that includes western Canadian oil and gas is incredibly important to us as Ontarians and farmers,” says Herrema, adding the Ontario Federation of Agriculture has lobbied for increased access to natural gas in rural Ontario.

“The Sandford project is a good example of what farmers and rural Ontario residents have been asking for.”

Sandford, a hamlet of about 50,000 people with a community hall and elementary school, was connected to the natural gas system as part of an Ontario government program launched in 2019 that is now in its second phase.

“Communities across Ontario are looking for affordable and reliable energy options that suit their needs. In fact, we receive requests for new natural gas service every day,” says Brian Johnson, senior vice-president of Enbridge Gas Ontario, which serves more than 3.9 million customers.

“In 2024 alone, we connected more than 35,000 new homes and businesses to our system.”

According to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, demand in the province will grow by 75 per cent between now and 2050.

“This is expected to happen as the population grows, as Ontario electrifies and Ontarians electrify aspects of their lives. We will need all forms of energy to meet this growing demand,” Johnson says.

Enbridge Gas Ontario recently completed the first phase of its $358 million Panhandle Regional Expansion Project, connecting more customers to natural gas in Southwestern Ontario.

“We have seen continued increased demand in the region for the resilient, affordable energy that natural gas provides. This has primarily been driven from greenhouse, automotive and power generation customers in the Windsor, Leamington and Kingsville and Chatham-Kent areas,” Johnson says.

Barton sees energy as a unifying issue for the country.

“We have nuclear and hydroelectric power in Ontario, but I see energy security as a balance. We need all of the above, including oil and gas,” he says.

The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.