EDITORIAL

A lot of hot air

COURIER WEEKEND Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

Shawn Graham and his Liberal government have given New Brunswickers some serious homework to do – namely trying to figure out the newly-announced home heating assistance program known as the Warm Hearts, Warm Homes plan.
Here’s your problem:
If Cold Person (CP) is living in a rental unit where Landlord (L’s) idea of efficiency is hanging towels over the windows to cut out the draft and Temperatue (T) is dropping at a rate of 5 C per week and Income (I) is unchanged at $18,500 per year because he obviously doesn’t have a well-paying government job and his boss is a miser, does Cold Person (CP) qualify for government help?
The answer is simple. Cold Person (CP) will give up trying to find out if he qualifies when he realizes how much of a pain in the butt (numb though that butt might be) it is to get help from the Graham Liberals.
It used to be that all New Brunswickers who earned less than a certain income got a cheque for $100 to help stave off the winter chill. Some of us are fortunate enough to view that as a paltry amount but to someone who gives serious thought about whether to go cold, or hungry, that money can be awful comforting.
But Ebenezer Graham did away with that aid package this week and announced a replacement program that’s available to applicants who are in an “emergency situation” and who agree to attend credit counseling sessions in order to get their handout. We’re not sure what credit the low-income earners need counseling on but we’re pretty sure it isn’t their trust funds or stock portfolios.
Oh, and since those in need obviously can’t be trusted with the government money, the credit will instead go directly to NB Power or Enbridge Gas or whoever else is supplying the heat. So if you’re a low-income household but you don’t own a home, if your heat bill is buried in your rent, guess what you get? Nothing! But take comfort, your landlord’s heat bill will get credited.
Warm Hearts, Warm Homes? More like Cold Hearts and Numb Skulls.
The Department of Social Development is also offering money for people to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient… ah home renovations! That’s just what’s at the top of New Brunswickers’ minds who are living on Mr. Noodles and keeping the thermostat cranked barely high enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
The former home heating assistance program was meager at best but at least it was simple to understand and it was of some benefit to 55,000 New Brunswickers. It’s telling that at a news conference announcing the new program, Energy Minister Jack Kier couldn’t even warrant a guess as to how many New Brunswickers will get help through the new program. Kier told reporters he doesn’t know how many people will apply.
If the ultimate goal of this program is to help cold, needy New Brunswickers, it’s too confusing, too misguided and destined to fail. More cynically, if the goal is to offer a plan that will confound and confuse and that few people will ever bother applying for… it’s going to be a roaring success for the Liberals. Raises all around?