Heat Smart program

Improvements include a more than doubling of the heating rebate for people who heat their home with oil, from $200 to $450 (click here for the form – applications due March 31, 2009) and increasing the income threshold of eligibility from $15,000 to $25,000 for single people, and from $25,000 to $40,000 for families.

(No improvements are being made to the existing $150 rebates for those who heat their homes with electricity, even though the cost of electricity is also rising steadily. For the fifth time in seven years, Nova Scotia Power is hiking rates, this time by 9.4 percent. Combined with the MacDonald government’s 8% tax on basic electricity, the increase – which goes into effect this month – people who heat their home with electricity will pay on average an extra $168 a year, in effect cancelling out any savings from the rebate. Rebates and tax cuts should be targeted at those most vulnerable to energy cost increases.)

The program also includes a $500 rebate for homeowners to replace their old furnace with a new energy-efficient one (click here for the form – applications due March 31, 2009).

Assistance to the Salvation Army’s Good Neighbour Program is also doubling, to $800,000.

The province has also introduced zero-interest loans for home improvements.

Premier Rodney MacDonald’s government is investing about ninety million dollars in total, presumably some of its recent $867 million windfall

Posted by Mike Targett | Email a comment