To the editor:
We received our Fortis hydro bill yesterday and did not sleep well last night.
Our monthly bill under the new tier system, including the omnipresent HST (didn’t we vote to eliminate it?), has now increased by $119.
Haven’t we been worried because in Canada, as in most developed countries, we are having too few children to support our aging citizens and infrastructure? And yet, Hydro’s new tier system is severely unaffordable and unfair to all larger families, and to intergenerational families that save tax payer dollars by caring for their elder members.
We have all read that it is healthier and saves building more assisted care residences (with all the bureaucracy that entails) to keep people in their own homes. But what do you do when you are on a fixed income when increases descend on you like this? You can use all the hints and energy wise appliances you can, but the more people within a household, the more showers, laundry, etc.
The tiers are set at such ridiculous levels that you would need to be a hermit to profit from the “savings” guaranteed by the first tier.
I suggest this “family first” government do something quickly—more than quickly—to redress this injustice.
Jan Schredl,
Kelowna
