High fuel costs drive some homeowners into public housing
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Gjoa Haven (Jan 22/01) - December was a very difficult month for Elizabeth Hiqiniq.
As temperatures hovered around -40 and the wind picked up, the heating fuel drained from her tank. With her husband only able to get part-time weekend work at the hamlet in Gjoa Haven, January hasn't been any easier.
| Heating fuel prices Gjoa Haven -- .953 cents per litre Cambridge Bay -- .893 cents per litre Rankin Inlet -- .853 cents per litre Grise Fiord -- .833 cents per litre Iqaluit -- .616 cents per litre Yellowknife -- .486 cents per litre
Toronto -- .556 cents per litre
|
While the monthly cost of water and electricity are both high, it's the price of heating fuel that keeps the mother of four children awake at night. She wonders every day where the money is going to come from to pay for the next tank of fuel.
"It used to be cheaper than now. This year we're really having problems and it's hard," said Hiqiniq.
"I worry about running out of fuel and the house and pipes and everything freezing up," she said.
Heating fuel costs more than 95 cents a litre in Gjoa Haven. Hiqiniq said it cost her about $200 to buy enough fuel to last for two weeks.
Because the part-time income they survive on falls short, Hiqiniq said the seven people living under her roof were forced to turn to social assistance to keep warm. That doesn't make her feel very good. Even with that extra few hundred dollars each month, however, there still isn't the money to buy enough fuel.
"Sometimes my family complains because I try to keep the heat low. Every week, every month I have to worry about everything. It's a lot," she said.
"I don't know where I'm going to get the extra. Quite a few people have these same worries. I don't think there's anywhere I can get the help in Gjoa Haven," she said.
Help needed
Hiqiniq said some homeowners in the Kitikmeot community are giving up their residences to move into public housing.
According to Raymond Kamookak, the hamlet's senior administrator, that goes against everything the Government of Nunavut is striving for. He said a few families in the hamlet have already given up their homes while others have added their names to a growing wait list for public housing.
"If the government wants people out of public housing and into their own homes, to make that work, there has to be a subsidy," said Kamookak.
Also a private homeowner, Kamookak said he was only able to keep up with the high price of fuel because his spouse has a part-time job.
Otherwise, he said he'd also be facing real economic hardship.
"A lot of employees at the hamlet own their own homes. They're coming to the hamlet for emergency advances because of hardship from the high cost of fuel," he said.
Public Works Minister Manitok Thompson said her department isdeveloping a heating fuel subsidy for low income homeowners.
