The day I’ve been dreading has arrived. The propane delivery truck showed up this morning to fill the tank. We’ve managed to conserve as much as possible for nearly a year, fairing much better than many folk who need their tank filled every month or so. I can’t imagine how anyone can continue to afford living in their homes, while prices for basic necessities like fuel oil and propane skyrocket. There’s something seriously wrong in this country and the Province of Ontario.
The propane distribution service industry is unregulated, meaning individual distributors can charge whatever they want, whenever they want. The price of propane per liter during the past two months alone has nearly doubled in many parts of Canada. A variety of reasons have been cited by industry “experts”, distributors and politicians that include: an unusually cold winter across much of North America; increased exports of domestically produced propane due to increased demand in the USA and Japan; equipment and truck problems due to the cold cause delivery delays; winter storms forcing the closure of roads and highways causing delivery delays; increased demand by farmers to dry bumper corn crops; and the list goes on and on.
The numbers are startling:
March 20, 2013:
1,301.1 liters @ .5921 per liter = $770.38
Transportation fee: $13.00
Hazardous material fee: $8.95
Harmonized sales tax: $103.00
Total: $895.33
February 6, 2014:
1,104.30 liters @ 1.19320 per liter = $1,317.65
Transportation fee: $13.00
Hazardous material fee: $8.95
Harmonized sales tax: $174.14
Total: $1,513.74
The price per liter has more than doubled in less than a year!
Every week, there are more and more news reports about this “energy crisis”. Industry “experts” claim the Canadian and provincial governments were warned last summer and fall that a crisis of this magnitude was imminent, yet all of those highly paid politicians with their cushy pensions ignored the warnings. Had I known about an impending shortage, the tank would have been filled last fall. We have been doing our best over the past year to be responsible consumers and stewards of the land by conserving and reducing our overall propane and electricity consumption. This past fall and winter, no matter what the temperature has been outside, we've been keeping the thermostat well below 60F at night and when we leave the house. Getting a wood stove installed downstairs last spring was a smart move. But, we still get punished despite our efforts.
It’s as ridiculous as the City of Thunder Bay penalizing consumers because of their conservation efforts, “The manager of the city’s environment division said water consumption is still dropping, so to keep paying for the infrastructure, water rates will jump by another six percent next year, and won't stop there.” This is the message: keep conserving so we (the Corporation) can justify raising your rates and boosting our own coffers.
I read a story in the Washington Post published yesterday about a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota who recently died. Her propane tank was empty. “Tribal officials have declared a state of emergency because about 5,000 homes on the reservation are heated by propane.”
How many stories like this will we read and hear about? It’s unacceptable that in First World countries people die because they can’t afford to heat their homes.
We will be installing a wood stove upstairs this spring. Enough is enough. We can only be bled so much in this country. Self-reliance is the way to go. It’s obvious that politicians and corporations are only concerned about themselves, so we have to stand up on our own and be as self-sufficient as possible. Energy analyst Dan McTeague pretty much sums it up, “A country boasting it is an energy superpower is incapable of looking after its own.”
Sources:
Ottawa Citizen:
www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Propane+shortage+price+spike+hidden+energy+crisis/9469274/story.html
CBC news:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-water-bills-go-up-as-usage-goes-down-1.2324992
CTV news:
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/propane-prices-skyrocketing-after-bitter-cold-leads-to-shortage-1.1653344
Fox news:
www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/31/lawmakers-ask-federal-trade-commission-to-investigate-spike-in-propane-prices/
The Globe and Mail:
www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/propane-shortage-has-ontario-pressing-for-federal-intervention/article16540361/
Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com/business/woman-dies-in-dakotas-with-no-propane-to-heat-home/2014/02/05/e232502a-8e98-11e3-878e-d76656564a01_story.html
