Premier, minister defend cuts to N.S. heating assistance rebate program

Fewer Nova Scotians will be eligible for the Heating Assistance Rebate Program this heating season.

Those who do meet the more stringent eligibility requirements will receive less of a rebate for the 2023-24 heating period than they did for the 2022-23 season.

“These are difficult decisions,” Premier Tim Houston told reporters Wednesday in defending the government’s heating rebate decision that was announced Monday.

“We know the pressures that people are under. We have to remember that this was a $200 program that we moved up to $1,000 and we changed the threshold around it. We did that significant increase, and of course this year it’s $600, which is obviously significantly more than it was before we started with the increase.”

Houston said the government’s goal is to reach as many people with as many supports as possible.

Energy efficiency

“There are other supports to help, energy efficiency programs, there is an energy support program that reaches almost 400,000 people,” he said. 

“Of course we always want them (rebates and supports) to be higher and higher and higher, but we have to be conscious of the financial capacity of the government. We have to try to reach as many people as we can with as much as we can.

“We are always looking at the government capacity and looking at other programs that may exist, maybe complementary; we do what we can to make sure that people can keep the heat on this winter.”

The premier said there is no question that the needs are significant across the province.

Last December, the majority Progressive Conservative government responded to those needs by announcing an additional $100-million investment in the heating rebate program to provide for a one-time rebate increase for the 2022-23 heating season, to a maximum of $1,000, up from the $200 maximum that had been in place.

The government also expanded the income eligibility threshold last year, increasing the eligibity to a maximum $85,000 in household income from the previous $29,000 threshold for a single-person household and $44,000 for a multiple-person household. Those maximums had existed since the program was introduced in 2009.

But the $85,000 threshold and $1,000 maximum rebate were lowered in Monday’s announcement, with the maximum rebate dropping to $600 and the income eligibility thresholds moving to $75,000 for a family and $55,000 for a single-income household, whether people own or rent.

The opposition parties found the program cutback to be unacceptable, and the Liberals introduced a bill at the legislature Wednesday to strengthen the social safety net and heating assistance supports.

“The premier has had a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars that he didn’t expect,” Opposition Leader Zach Churchill said of the government’s September budget update, which included $232 million in new revenue.

“I think a very good way to use that money is to help people with power bills. We’ve got power rates that are going up 14 per cent in Nova Scotia and seniors and working families and everybody else (who was eligible) has budgeted to get this $1,000 rebate, and now they won’t get it.”

Last year’s levels

Churchill said the Liberal bill would bring the rebate and threshold numbers back up to last year’s levels. The Liberal bill proposes that all provincial social assistance programs increase their eligibility thresholds and dollar amounts in assistance given by 30 per cent. 

During question period Wednesday, Kendra Coombes, the NDP representative for Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, chided Service Nova Scotia Minister Colton LeBlanc for altering the rebate program.

“Many, many people in Cape Breton will face the difficult choice this winter of paying their heating bill or putting food on the table,” Coombes said. “Earlier this month, we learned that so far this year, Nova Scotia Power has disconnected 2,825 residential customers because they were not able to pay their bills. Somehow, the minister thinks that people deserve $400 less this year to pay their heat bill.”

During question period and in an interview outside the chamber, LeBlanc said the government continually evaluates all its programs, including the heating rebate.

“Last year, we implemented one-time changes to the program, and this year, we’ve made some changes again,” LeBlanc said. “It is the first time in recent history that we’ve seen any changes to the rebate and the threshold.

“Of course, Nova Scotians are facing tough times; we recognize that as a government and we’re striving every day to meet the needs of Nova Scotians. HARP is one way we support them, property tax rebates for seniors is another way, the seniors care grant that our government brought in and further expanded.”

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

LeBlanc referenced the $140 million in energy efficiency programs supported by government to reduce reliance on oil and make homes more energy efficient. 

LeBlanc said the government is investing more than $82 million in the heating assistance rebate program.

The government anticipates more than 130,000 people will qualify for the 2023-24 rebate, down from the 155,800 successful applicants who qualified for the rebate in 2022-23, reaping a total of nearly $156 million in rebate dollars.

The government says before its 2022-23 rebate increase to $1,000 and the expanded eligibility qualifications, the rebate program received only about 45,000 applications per year.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said she can’t make head nor tail of the government’s about-face.

“This is a premier and a government that has consistently said they will spend whatever it takes on health care, and yet they refuse to acknowledge that people’s basic needs, like being able to heat their homes, being able to have a roof over their heads and being able to eat, are de facto health care,” Chender said.

“We are not in a better position than we were last year. People are struggling and we in the NDP have been pushing for the better part of two years now for increased assistance, for low-income energy rates, things that could make people’s lives better. 

“The idea that they are clawing those programs back at a time when we know how challenging life is for so many Nova Scotians is very concerning.”

More information, including how to apply, is available online. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2024 and application forms are also available at Access Nova Scotia and MLA offices.