Skyrocketing oil prices batter poorest families - Some can't afford to buy fuel for furnace; thousands more are furious about bills

www.canada.com CATHERINE SOLYOM The Gazette Friday, March 07, 2003

What to pay: the mortgage or the heating bill?

That was the dilemma facing Carolina Villaseca when arctic winds and the prospect of war in Iraq conspired to send the price of heating oil through the roof, from about 44 cents a litre in November to 66 cents today.

"We had to pay the mortgage and all our debts and we just couldn't afford the heat," said Villaseca, a new mother living in Laval, whose monthly oil bill almost doubled this year to $300.

"But if we didn't heat, the pipes would burst, and you can't let a baby go without heat."

Villaseca turned to Sun Youth, which helped provide a half-tank of fuel in February.

She wasn't the only one caught between a rock and a cold place. Since January, Sun Youth, along with the Quebec Heating Oil Association, has helped about 100 families in Greater Montreal heat their homes.

The beneficiaries include a family with four small children; a family sleeping with its stove on, and using candles to keep warm; a woman whose budgie froze to death; and senior citizens who simply couldn't afford to pay for the oil delivery.

"It's been an exceptional year," said Sid Stevens, executive director of Sun Youth, which helped 40 families with their fuel bills all last year. "The only difference between the homeless and some families is that some families have a civic address. But they still live in the cold."

Sun Youth also turned down about 100 families when it saw they could pay for the heat - but didn't want to.

Of those, there are thousands.

"One customer came in screaming about his bill, calling us all thieves and asking 'How come my neighbour pays less?' " said a representative of fuel supplier Joseph Elie Ltd., affiliated with Petro Canada, who would not give her name. "But we offered him 41.9 cents a litre guaranteed in July and he refused. So what do you want us to do about it? The price went up."

Unfortunately, most Montrealers, lulled by 10 years of relatively low oil prices and mild winters, decided not to go with a fixed rate, or secure a cap on the price of oil when it was offered in the summer, said Hélène Tomlinson of the Quebec Heating Oil Association. "They decided to take their chances, not knowing about the strike in Venezuela or war in Iraq. Now they are up a creek and there are a lot of divorces over it."

While natural gas prices rose about 59 per cent this winter because of higher demand, and electricity went up 18 per cent, heating oil followed the same trajectory as crude oil, which shot up from $24.85 U.S. a barrel in November to $37 yesterday.

"People blame the oil companies - or the delivery guy," Tomlinson said. "But we can't control the weather or what happens in Iraq."

And after giving home heating rebates in the winter of 2001 to a number of prison inmates and dead people, the federal government is unlikely to step in again.

Heating Oil Prices

Not including taxes or volume discounts (in cents/litre)

Avg. Avg. Avg. Avg. Avg. Feb. 24 March 3 Area 2001-02 Nov. '02 Dec. '02 Jan. '03 Feb. '03 2003 2003 Townships 38.7 43.8 46.8 50.9 59.5 62.4 64.7 Montreal 39.7 44.4 47.2 51.8 60.6 63.5 66.2 Laval 39.9 44.9 47.7 52.3 61.4 64.4 66.5 Laurentians 39.1 44.2 46.8 50.9 59.5 62.1 65.6 Outaouais 44.2 48.5 50.1 54.4 63.8 66.1 69.5

SOURCE: rÉgie de l'énergie du québec csolyom@thegazette.canwest.com