Natural gas rates are dropping slightly in the New Year.

Union Gas spokesperson Andrea Stass says residential customers in our region will see their gas bills decrease by about one per cent.

“For those customers in the Northeast, so that covers Sudbury, North Bay, Orillia, Sault Ste Marie, that area, it does mean a small decrease of about $6 a year,” she says.

Stass says there are a couple of reasons for the rate reduction.

“It’s a decrease in what we expect to pay for natural gas, as we look forward through the winter months. There’s also some adjustments for the difference between what we forecasted gas prices would be and what they actually were from a prior period,” she says.

Stass also points out there is about a $4 increase with the province’s Cap and Trade program, but the end result is the annual decrease of $6.

The average bill for the northeast is $1,058 a year.

Filed under: north-bay, union-gas