North Huron council is moving forward with a plan to potentially install a natural gas pipeline between Blyth and Auburn along Huron County Road 25.
Matt Jackson, the Manager of Municipal Affairs for Union Gas, says natural gas is a more financially beneficial way to deliver energy to rural areas.
"The rates for natural gas versus other forms of energy, there's quite a bit of a economic saving by converting. So, the cost of electricity in Ontario has been increasing, and by increasing access to natural gas it is our hope that we'll bring families' and businesses' energy bills down."
The pipeline service would cost the municipality roughly $550 per year over a 10 year period.
Jackson says that will benefit agricultural establishments along the proposed route.
"When we're designing projects, we look at a number of things. Preferable running lines, businesses, clusters of customers along the route. So we're in the development stages of those proposals now."
Part of the early stages of this proposal involves Union Gas sending staff to conduct customer surveys in Auburn. Jackson says he wants residents to be aware of staff coming to their doors to conduct the surveys.
"It's a voluntary sort of process, and they're simply providing high level information about their interest in converting to natural gas, and that will help us make sure that we're developing a realistic and reasonable process."
