HAY RIVER - Simone Kochon can't afford to keep her oxygen tank running, but she really can't afford to unplug it.

Sarah Kochon, 69, left, and her sister Simone Kochon, 72, saw their electricity bill spike in spring 2008 when Simone started using an oxygen machine to help her breathe. They can't afford to pay the bill, which has accumulated to more than $4,000. - photo courtesy of Jerry Huculak

The 72-year-old Colville Lake resident has had chronic breathing problems and last June was diagnosed with a respiratory illness and sent home with an oxygen concentrator, which uses electricity to convert oxygen from the air to pure oxygen. Since then, she and her sister Sarah Kochon, 69, have seen their electricity bill skyrocket to about $900 a month, up from roughly $200 they used to pay per month.

Sarah, who retired this year from her job as a custodian at Colville Lake School, said each month she has been putting as much money as she can toward the bill, which now totals about $4,800, but she's constantly worried their electricity will get cut off.

"We've lost our appetite, we lost weight, because we worry about the power so much," she said, explaining that she and her sister live on limited pension funds. "We think that they're going to cut us off and what are we going to do?"

Sarah said she has contacted NWT Power Corp. asking for help and written letters to Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya to no avail.

"We've been begging for help but we don't know why they don’t help us," Sarah said.

In an effort to reduce electricity costs, Simone went off the oxygen for one day this spring and ended up back in the hospital.

"If she doesn't use it, she gets sick, really sick," Sarah said. "The doctor told her not to leave it, that it has to be on all the time."

The sisters asked the hospital for a portable oxygen tank, one that doesn't use electricity but instead needs to be refilled with a new supply of pure oxygen from time to time.

"They said they were going to send it," Sarah said. "They never sent it. We're still waiting for it."

Mike Bradshaw, communications director for NWT Power Corp., confirmed that the Kochon's electricity costs started going up around the time Simone started using the oxygen tank, but he could not release more information about their account.

"The account has been in arrears, coincidentally, since about the time the health care equipment was installed," he said, adding that the company tries to work with customers to sort out individual payment plans depending on the situation.

"Sometimes hardship comes about for a variety of reasons and we don't want to push customers into any greater hardships so we, along with other service providers, generally try to work with customers because helping them get through a rough patch is better than never getting paid at all," he said.

"We do try to take everyone's circumstances into account and then try and help them get through difficult periods. It's not always possible to do that with everyone, but a lot of times you'll find that utilities will work that way, especially here in the North."

Sarah said she has gotten electricians to inspect the house but they haven't found a way to reduce the cost. For now, she said she has been looking into social assistance programs to make ends meet.

"We've been like that for a long time," she said. "The government can't help us."