While every little bit is welcome, the $125 that Joan Hirons found in her mailbox will hardly begin to compensate her for skyrocketing fuel costs.
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 09/01) - "Can I go and cash it now," laughed Joan Hirons after displaying the newly arrived cheque.
Hirons, who owns the Island Bed and Breakfast in Old Town is one of an estimated 11 million Canadians eligible for the Federal Government's Relief for Heating Expenses program.
The program, announced last October in Finance Minister Paul Martin's pre-election mini-budget, is finally starting to show up in Yellowknifers pockets.
The relief is designed to offset recent high heating costs caused by surging oil and natural gas prices. Anyone who has received a Goods and Services Tax credit qualifies for the rebate. Eligible single individuals receive $125. Families are entitled to $250.
In 1998, Hirons' fuel bill was $1,090.
Last year, her fuel costs had soared, nearly doubling to $2,036.
She hasn't yet passed that cost on to her customers, but unless fuel costs plummet suddenly, "It will make me put my prices up."
MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew says that the program is a "special one-time payment funded by the federal government." There are presently no plans to make more payments.
Yellowknife MLA Charles Dent admits that the territorial government is in a bind. Unlike other jurisdictions, particularly Alberta, the NWT does not earn extra tax revenues from fuel when prices climb.
"There has been no windfall in tax revenues," says Dent. "We've let people keep the money. Everyone gets to keep the money in their pocket."
Dent thinks that the fuel issue will loom large when the NWT legislature begins its session Feb. 14. "(Finance Minister Joe) Handley has indicated he's very concerned," about high fuel costs.
"He doesn't have a lot of flexibility."
