Living on credit': Seniors advocate seeks help on oil bills
Cecile Cassista
The skyrocketing cost of home heating fuel has a New Brunswick senior citizens’ advocate calling on governments for help.
Cecile Cassista of the New Brunswick Coalition of Seniors said heating costs are always a concern for seniors.
“Whether it’s oil, gas, or electricity, it has been a costly year for seniors, particularly low-income seniors who are only making below $19,000 with the GIS,” she said.
She said the organization has always lobbied for assistance for seniors in paying their heating bills, now more so than ever.
“The coalition policy has been for years that heating is a necessity, a commodity and that no tax should be charged to the bill. We recommend that all residential heating be eligible for a PST (eight per cent) rebate and that the low income benefit of $400 be increased to $500," she said.
“What seniors are telling me is that with the rise in (the cost of) groceries they are not able to purchase quality food. There are seniors that resort to the food banks because their income does not carry them to the end of the month. It just appears this group tends to be forgotten about.”
The newspaper did not receive comment from the Finance and Treasury Board by publication time.
Increase forcing tough decisions
Other seniors say it sometimes comes down to a choice on which bill to pay.
“Seniors on fixed incomes and living in their own homes have to cut back on food and other necessities to make ends meet,” said Anne Melanson of Bathurst. “Many, with the increasing costs of so many items, are living on credit.”
And it’s not only seniors who are feeling the pinch of the soaring cost of furnace oil, which combined with colder than normal temperatures, has led to more spending on home heating and less money for other things.
Brenda Letourneau of Campbellton said she usually spends about $2,000 for oil each winter and is on pace to surpass that amount by a large margin.
“I keep the house at 22, so it’s not like it’s overly warm in here,” she said. “I am on equalized billing from September to June and I’m already $300 over that.”
She said she has receipts from last year, where she paid 94.9 cents per litre of oil and when she last had the tank filled up it was at $1.339 per litre, an increase of more than 40 per cent. As of March 11, the price for a litre of oil was $1.602, down from $1.834 the day before.
Impacting travel
John Belliveau lives in an older two storey home in Dalhousie Junction. He said he has already spent more on oil this winter than he usually does for a full winter season.
“I spend about $4,000 to heat the house every winter and that’s where we’re at now. The cost has gone up so much and the weather has been so cold that I will be paying this off until next year.”
As a result of the higher cost of furnace oil and the colder than normal winter, he said vacations will likely be put on hold for this summer.
“I was planning on going to a car show in Moncton and maybe a wedding in Halifax but with oil as high as it is and likely going higher before the winter is over, it doesn’t look like I will be able to now.”
Furnace oil, as well as gasoline, is regulated by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board which can make changes on a day where the market price goes either above or below a threshold. The price is normally adjusted every Wednesday night but last week, it was adjusted three times in four days.
Currently, the maximum price a company can charge for home heating fuel is $1.602 per litre.
