Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Shannon Joseph. I lead Energy for a Secure Future, a non-partisan initiative that brings together labour, business, and indigenous and municipal leaders and organizations to advance Canada's energy future.
In collaboration with the First Nations Power Authority, we conducted research on energy affordability in rural communities and first nations reserves. The resulting report, called “The Other Energy Security: Addressing Energy Poverty in Canada's Indigenous Communities”, identifies a critical issue, which is that while Canada has some of the most affordable natural gas in the world, many first nations and rural communities heat their homes with far more expensive and higher-emitting fuels for lack of natural gas access. This situation is a driver of energy poverty and a barrier to social and economic progress in many communities.
In 2021, Statistics Canada found that 5.6% of Canadian households were energy-poor. On reserve, the figure was more than double that, at 12.9%. A 2025 Earnscliffe survey found that over a third of indigenous respondents fit the definition of “energy poor”, spending more than 10% of their after-tax income on energy. Among respondents, roughly 29% had reduced their energy use to save money and 32% had reduced their spending on essentials to afford energy.
Chief Christine Longjohn of Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan calls this “heat poverty”—families choosing between groceries and a warm home. In some communities reliant on electricity or propane, heating bills approach or exceed $1,000 a month.
Natural gas is the cheapest way to heat a home in Canada. Canada Energy Regulator data from 2022 states that electricity costs roughly two to six times more per gigajoule than natural gas, depending on the province. In the five provinces where we found data, over 300 first nations reserves have no natural gas connection, even when surrounded by natural gas infrastructure. This leaves many of these communities with higher energy bills, acting as a barrier to their economic and social development objectives.
Two barriers keep communities stuck.
The first is provincial. Provincial regulators generally require a utility to recover the cost of infrastructure extensions from the customers it connects to. Even when a community energy project can cover 80% to 90% of its costs, the project can still fail to move forward because the remaining costs cannot be absorbed under the provincial regulatory model.
The second barrier is federal. Many federal programs have excluded projects focused on natural gas distribution. Therefore, even when communities have determined it is their best option to move away from propane, heating oil or diesel, federal funding for community energy has often failed to enable the switch.
Ultimately, many rural and indigenous communities find themselves in a gap between federal resources and provincial regulation.
However, this is fixable, and governments have done it before. In Red Lake, Ontario, $2.7 million in federal support helped that community to access natural gas, saving residential customers 50% to 70% on their heating costs. Ontario's expansion program, funded by a one-dollar monthly charge on existing customers, has connected dozens of communities, including first nations.
More projects are ready. The First Nations Power Authority is advancing a $39.2-million project to bring natural gas to five Saskatchewan first nations. Households would save an average of $1,568 a year, which is about $2.1 million annually across the five of them. The Canadian Gas Association has identified roughly $1.1 billion in similar projects nationally, where the communities are known and the routes are understood.
Therefore, we offer three recommendations.
First, make natural gas distribution extensions eligible under existing federal programs, such as the indigenous community infrastructure fund and the clean energy for rural and remote communities program, or create a dedicated program to support natural gas access in rural and indigenous communities.
Second, provide resources that enhance community energy resilience, including appliance upgrades, community energy audits, local capacity and better housing quality on reserves.
Third, build rural and indigenous energy access into the federal agenda around major projects as pipelines or data centres are built, and leverage tools like the indigenous loan guarantee so that nations near national infrastructure can benefit directly from it.
Above all, this must be the community's choice. Not every northern community or first nation will want natural gas, but when a community does, federal policy should not take away that option.
Guy Lonechild, CEO of the First Nations Power Authority, put it simply: “Natural gas is the new water.” Clean water on reserve is finally getting attention. Affordable, reliable heat should be next.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.