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“Increased access to natural gas in towns across the province will generate significant local investment, help businesses grow and create jobs, and it will improve the quality of life for all Ontario residents,” he said in a generic statement announcing the plan on Monday. The ministry estimates a household switching to natural gas could save more than $1,000 a year.

Chiarelli’s ministry said the money will be given out after “a competitive intake process” that’s to start this spring, with municipal governments and First Nations bands expected to work with natural-gas companies to submit bids. Details are scarce but presumably the more people that can be served with the province’s money, the better. Homeowners and landlords will have to install gas furnaces and boilers, which is plenty expensive, but can’t happen without the pipes in the ground first.

This is a new run at an old problem: in 2015, the government offered up a $200-million loan program with much the same purpose but had trouble when the natural-gas suppliers wanted to raise prices for existing customers to pay for their expansion plans. The Ontario Energy Board (which regulates energy prices) said no, new customers will have to cover the costs of their own services.

Trouble is, if they thought it would be economical to get new customers to cover the cost of laying new gas lines to rural and remote towns, the suppliers would have done it on their own.

Last fall, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the councils of rural county wardens in both eastern and western Ontario asked the province for more natural-gas help. Homeowners’ hydro bills are a big deal but they hamper commercial and industrial development and they ding farmers, too.