Summary
Just how bad is the PUB's business case for low-income support is revealed in its description of the problem, described as something just short of an emergency: "Energy affordability for low-income families is very much an issue that requires more or less immediate attention in Manitoba," it said in a recent order. In the absence of good evidence, it has plucked from thin air inflated estimates of Manitoba's low-income population. Last year, in a ruling that bemoaned the ineffectiveness of Manitoba Hydro programs that aim to help impoverished customers cut their heating bills, the PUB noted that "the current low-income population is likely at least in the order of 100,000 households." That's an extraordinary number, representing more than 20 per cent of Manitoba's 450,000 households. It defies Statistics Canada's own estimates, which in 2005 put the low-income population in Manitoba at 12.6 per cent.
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Extract
Editorial - Pub Abuse of Power
111The PUB began talking about a program for low-income ratepayers in 2006, when the NDP government first raised the prospect of using Hydro export re...
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