Buy food or pay Hydro?

I live with a chronic and degenerative disease and exist on a fixed income.

With this heat wave and smoky air, I’ve had to keep my air conditioning on longer than usual, sometimes even though the night.

I try to minimize the strain on my in-the-wall A/C unit by closing off rooms I don’t use.

I just received a BC Hydro email alert that I am about to go into the Stage 2 rate. I can’t do anything else to reduce my energy consumption, and the A/C will remain on for my own health and safety.

I will have to make budget cuts in other areas to pay for the Stage 2 rates. That usually means food or medicine.

The province should freeze BC Hydro residential rates at Stage 1 for any heat warning weather alert or bad air advisory for the duration of the alert. BC Hydro is a Crown corporation, why should a corporation owned by the people of B.C. benefit from an emergency situation?

Money means more than people. Government is there to protect the people. 

Patrick W. Olenick, West Kelowna