As this campaign has multiple facets, we’ve broken it down into a few sub-sections.
Saving the Beverly Swamp...Again!
The following notice appeared in The Hamilton Spectator on Aug ust 8th, 2026. It announces the revival of the fracked gas pipeline through the Beverly Swamp that we stopped five years ago.
Click the image for a complete PDF of the notice.
In the fall of 2020, Enbridge withdrew its application for this project, which would move Pennsylvania fracked gas across southern Ontario as well as to markets in New England (because many states won’t allow such a pipeline through their terrirtory), citing the pandemic as its “reason”. It indicated that a new proposal would be filed within a year, though at the time of writing, there is no active application on the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) website.
Back then, opposition from the City of Hamilton, the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA), and various environmental groups (including Hamilton 350) played a significant role in its withdrawal. We need to ensure that the new Council after October is prepared to take the same action.
Time-sensitive information
As per the notice in The Spec, Enbridge is holding an in-person information session on August 25th from 5 to 8pm at 855 Millgrove Side Road, Millgrove ON L0R 1V0.
If you’re interested in car pooling (either offering or needed), click here.
What you should know
The significance of the Beverly Swamp
- The Beverly Swamp spans three watersheds — Fairchild, Spencer and Bronte creeks — and offers one of the best and largest lowland swamp forest representations in south-central Ontario. It covers 2324 hectares, 920 of which are owned by the HCA.
- According to 2020 estimates, the pipeline’s eight-lane wide right-of-way – where most of the construction activity would take place – would run through 10 kilometres of Hamilton, damaging the part of the Beverly Swamp not owned by the HCA.
Why they want this pipeline
- To bridge the gap in energy needs until Doug Ford’s ill-conceived and outrageously expensive nuclear power plants are operational (likely decades away), Ford wants to expand the use of gas-fired power plants. And for this, he needs gas.
- This is projected to result in a 400% increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2030 over 2017 levels and an 800% increase by 2040.
The impact on your energy bill
- To pay for the pipeline, Enbridge Gas plans to increase rates for gas consumers throughout Ontario by $120 million.
Is it really needed?
- No. By expanding its energy conservation and efficiency programs Enbridge can avoid the need for additional fracked gas imports, reduce our energy bills, create jobs in thousands of Ontario communities and help Ontario achieve its 2030 climate target.
- Ontario could also keep its lights on at a lower cost and with much less pollution by restoring and expanding energy efficiency programs and by contracting for low-cost water power from Quebec.
For more details, see the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA)’s detailed assessment of this pipeline.
Counter disinformation
There's nothing "natural" about "natural" gas!
Enbridge and other companies that profit from producing, selling or using fossil fuels use the term “natural gas” repeatedly in an attempt to establish it in common parlance and make it seem innocuous. We prefer to use the term “fossil gas” to make it clear that it’s something that needs to be eliminated in order to help mitigate the climate emergency.
In the words of Enbridge Gas: “Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture, consisting mainly of methane…”. Okay, so maybe by the strictest definition it is naturally occurring, but note the keyword “methane”. While carbon dioxide (CO2) is bad for the atmosphere, methane is far worse. According to the UN Environment Program:
“Methane is […] a powerful greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide. [It] has accounted for roughly 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s. […] even as carbon dioxide emissions decelerated during the pandemic-related lockdowns of 2020, atmospheric methane shot up.”
Check out this video from Environmental Defence for an overview of why we need to phase out fossil gas as an energy source.
Promote fuel-efficient appliances
Ban fossil fuel hook-ups in new builds
Hamilton 350 is working alongside other environmental organizations to promote the take-up of electrical appliances such as heat pumps and induction stoves over gas furnaces and gas stoves.
We believe that Hamilton City Council should join other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world in banning the implementation of fossil fuel hook-ups in new builds. For example:
- In Vancouver, all new and replacement heating and hot water systems must be zero emissions by 2025.
- In Quebec, it became illegal to replace existing furnaces with any sort of heating system powered by fossil fuels after December 2023.
Heat pumps: The smart way to heat and cool your home
From the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA): “Heat pump technology is the smart, modern way to heat and cool your home. Heat pumps move heat from the outside air or the ground to the inside of your home in winter and are three to four times more energy efficient than a gas furnace. In summer, they move heat out of your home and are up to twice as efficient as a conventional air conditioner. The result is that heat pumps use far less energy to heat and cool your home. And when heat pumps are powered by zero carbon electricity, they can massively reduce your home’s climate impact.”
How do they do that? See this article from The Guardian for an animated visual of how heat pumps work.
Factcheck: 18 misleading myths about heat pumps
Heat pumps now feature in most proposals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by mid-century in order to meet the globally agreed aim of avoiding dangerous climate change.
For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says with high confidence that net-zero energy systems will include the electrification of heating “rely[ing] substantially on heat pumps” – with a possible exception only for extreme climates.
Heat pumps significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from building heat and are the “central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating”, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Heat pumps are also a mature technology and are very popular in countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, where they are the dominant heating technology. For the first time in 2022, heat pumps outsold gas boilers in the US – and they continued to do so in 2023.
Yet, in major economies such as the UK and Germany, heat pumps are the subject of hostile and misleading reporting across many mainstream media outlets.
In this article, Carbon Brief factchecks 18 of the most common and persistent myths about heat pumps.