To the Editor,
Re: Everyday items often overlooked in food donations, Letters, Nov. 13.
Catherine Melnyk and her story about living in poverty brings up an interesting fact that her hydro bill has doubled in the past year.
Let’s assume that low rental accommodations are mostly heated with electric baseboard heating.
And with cold weather, the heating usage becomes more frequent and required.
And as electrical consumption increases, the bill should increase in theory by the amount used or a price per kilowatt.
But in all unfairness, a higher billing matrix of metering electricity as a heat source has targeted the poor and working class family.
You would think the government would support this cleanest energy and promote it instead of alternate dirty fuels such as wood or heating oil.
The current government agrees with B.C. Hydro’s theory that the two-step matrix billing of electricity will curb electricity abuse.
On an electrical bill, once you surpass your Step 1 usage, your rate per kilowatt increases at Step 2 by an average 30 per cent.
B.C. Hydro’s two-step billing makes absolutely no marketing sense and would never work in a market that has retail competition.
It is another example of how society is taxing the poor and middle class who live in older homes.
Homes that for cost or mechanical reasons, cannot be refit with modern efficient heat pumps. This is discrimination at its finest.
The meter technology has been installed in every house and can now determine whether a home is consuming power for heat.
Price equalities need to reflect fair market values. The carbon offset of electricity should be adjusted on Step 2. Promote the use of the greenest fuel.
Does this not make sense?
Give the working class and the poor a reason not to burn wood.
Matt James
Nanaimo