Residents on the north coast of Labrador are unhappy with rising prices for Heating Oil, which some use as their only source of heat during the long, cold winter months.

Some who don’t have wood stoves to cover their Heating bills spend $1,000 to $2,000 a month just to keep warm. The fuel is similar to heating oil, but is further refined to lower its pour point, the point at which the fuel gels.

Caroline Rideout, who lives in Makkovik, told CBC News she pays $491.83 per drum. About a year ago, she was paying about $380.

“During the colder months, you can burn one barrel of heating oil in two weeks, or less if that’s your only source of heat,” Rideout said.

“Many people here don’t have wood-burning stoves. They only have oil stoves. They burn through like two, three or four barrels a month.”

Rideout said she’s lucky in that she has a wood-burning stove so she doesn’t burn oil all winter, but the cost of gasoline to actually go for firewood doesn’t make things cheaper.

She said she was worried about older people in her community who don’t have this back-up plan and live on a fixed income.

“I know some older people who only get about $1,200 a month. If you need to buy two barrels of oil, your entire check is gone,” Rideout said.

“I expect there will be elderly people in the winter who will have to choose between buying food and heating the house. I don’t think they have to choose. they want to keep warm.”

Marjorie Flowers, AngajukKâk for Hopedale, says the same situation is unfolding in her community.

Flowers said oil prices are getting outrageous and people are having to choose between heating, food or bills.

“People will definitely suffer this winter,” she said.

“I just really feel sorry for fixed income families, especially the elderly and low-income. It’s just getting ridiculous how everything has skyrocketed.”

Further aggravating the situation is the lack of sea ice, from which the inhabitants have nowhere to go.

“We don’t have much ice. People are only now starting to go for firewood, and the ice situation in many places is still bad. There are only certain places where you can go for firewood,” Flowers said.

“Now more and more people are burning oil because they either don’t have wood or they don’t have enough. … It’s really scary to look into the future if we look at the climate, because here everything changes so quickly.”

Flowers said she would like to see First Nations representatives on the provincial Public Utilities Board, which regulates fuel prices for Newfoundland and Labrador.

All types of fuel increase in price

Meanwhile, gas, diesel, heating oil and Heating Oil Rose in price on Thursday as part of PUB’s scheduled weekly price adjustment.

Conventional gasoline has risen in price by 5.2 cents per liter.

Island customers now pay $1.73 on the Avalon Peninsula, $1.75 on the Burin Peninsula and Central Newfoundland, $1.77 in the Springdale area, $1.74 on the West Coast, and $1.75 to $1.77 on the Northern Peninsula.

Diesel jumped almost nine cents a litre.

Heating oil rose 7.75 cents a liter, while heating oil rose 6.21 cents a liter in the island and 8.09 cents a liter in Labrador.

Propane has risen in price by 2.9 cents per liter.

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

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