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Enbridge Gas has applied for a rate increase that could drive up the average customer’s bill by as much as $94 a year — and the company is blaming the looming carbon tax.

The increase marks about an 11-per-cent jump. That’s based on what the company said in September was a typical residential customer’s annual bill: $873.

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Enbridge, which recently merged with Union Gas, supplies 99.8 per cent of all natural gas customers in the province of Ontario.

All increases to energy bills must be approved by the Ontario Energy Board, which regularly revisits energy prices and adjusts them as needed.

The natural gas distributor filed its application for an increase in January, saying higher costs associated with the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (more commonly known as the carbon tax) would add increased costs that the company will need to recoup from customers.

Enbridge asked that new rates be applied effective April 1, the date the new carbon tax will take effect.