Winter heating bill burdens fixed income resident

Our cold temperatures may finally be gone, but the bills are in for all the heat used and the figures are leaving some people floored, especially those who use electricity for heat.

Shirley Lauzon's hydro bill for the month of March was $2,033.36.

"I can't pay it right off. Who can?" she said. "You get shocked. I almost had a heart attack. I'm eighty-one!"

The Amherstburg woman pays an average of $350 each month on equalized billing.

"I'm on a pension, and I don't live in a big mansion," she said. "I live in a mobile home park."

She lives alone, washes her clothes once a week and washes her dishes once a day.

Her home is insulated and she even installed a high efficiency furnace in December.

"The stove is plugged in. The freezer is plugged in. The fridge is plugged in. Everything else is unplugged," said Lauzon.

Lauzon thought something was wrong, so she called Essex Powerlines looking for answers.

"I talked to the lady there, and she said, 'There's nothing you can do about it. You have to pay it.' So she said, 'How do you want to pay it?' And I said, 'I don't know.'"

Now, Lauzon is looking at unplugging from power and switching to gas.

Calls to Essex Powerlines went unanswered.