Yeah.... I am that lower class person, and I am only able to barely weather the storm because I all but own my home (like I think it's sub-$20k now) and broke the remaining mortgage into an extended term so I'm paying almost nothing. But even with that huge advantage, I had to drop my internet and go cell-data-only. They have extremely underexagerrated inflation. They use convoluted means to smokescreen what's actually happened. If you take things like gasoline out of the mix and look at essentials (like the nat gas mentioned), most increases were north of 10%, some as high as 30%-50%, especially on food. And as someone allergic to basically everything, I can tell you, it's absolutely crushing....ADenariusSaved wrote: ↑ Well, we did vote for more tax, not our fault Putin decided to invade Ukraine, and that the Europeans went green and shut down their nuclear reactors lol.
Perfect storm.
https://www.enbridgegas.com/residential ... bon-charge
Costs going up up up. Our voting patterns suggested that we prioritized the environment over our economy. We still have a poor environmental track record, so I wonder what it was all for.
Good luck everyone over the next years. Hope you don't drown in inflation like our lower classes hitting up the food banks in record numbers. It's going to be rough.
Property tax going up as well.
It's not over-exaggerated inflation, you're experiencing true inflation but government statisticians throw random shit into the CPI and rejig calculation methodology to make things look better than they are. I'm sure a big proportion of household budgets are going towards necessities and not doodads like LCD TVs (which deflate in price due to better manufacturing tech). CPI has always been known to understate inflation. The definition kept getting modified to be more liberal. It's the same with unemployment, where they're not counting people that have been out more than 6+ months as they're considered discouraged seekers. In the CPI, the BLS changed the definition in the Clinton era to include hedonics lol, so mental acrobatics to push the stat down. In the core CPI, they exclude food and gas.CouponBaron wrote: ↑ Yeah.... I am that lower class person, and I am only able to barely weather the storm because I all but own my home (like I think it's sub-$20k now) and broke the remaining mortgage into an extended term so I'm paying almost nothing. But even with that huge advantage, I had to drop my internet and go cell-data-only. They have extremely underexagerrated inflation. They use convoluted means to smokescreen what's actually happened. If you take things like gasoline out of the mix and look at essentials (like the nat gas mentioned), most increases were north of 10%, some as high as 30%-50%, especially on food. And as someone allergic to basically everything, I can tell you, it's absolutely crushing....
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2001/01/tec ... y%20policy.The Bank of Canada uses core CPI inflation, the year-over-year rate of change of the consumer price index excluding food, energy, and the effects of changes in indirect taxes, as the operational guide for monetary policy.
I thought electric was more expensive? I remember the East Coasters getting eviscerated by heating because all they have there is electric (despite a massive refinery in Saint John). I read about Germans converting to heat pumps because of the gas disruptions. Never heard of that tech, must be more efficient.
You thought wrong. Electric heat pumps are the most efficient form of heating that exists. Air-based is not as efficient as ground-loop, but ground-loop costs more to install than it is usually worth.ADenariusSaved wrote: ↑ I thought electric was more expensive? I remember the East Coasters getting eviscerated by heating because all they have there is electric (despite a massive refinery in Saint John). I read about Germans converting to heat pumps because of the gas disruptions. Never heard of that tech, must be more efficient.
Was that Direct Energy Company a scam? Didn't hear good things about it, parents always complained. Seems like Enbridge is the way to go. I remember looking over the stock ENB-T with my coop student in early 2015, it just kept marching upwards with like 5-7% dividends and 0 beta. Looks like they took a hit in the past few years, so it was too good to be true.robsaw wrote: ↑ People have short memories.
Natural Gas has been on mostly a decline since the 2008-9 economic mess and has only recently (since 2020) started to increase towards the price trends that are similar to 20 years ago.
I remember back then of private gas resellers coming around trying to lock-in people to discounted (but 5-year contracts) - good thing I didn't, saved me 50-75% annually on my bill compared to what I would have been locked into from 2009-2014.
I'm in BC where there are currently 6 authorized gas resellers through Fortis BC (formerly Terasen, formerly BC Gas). Direct Energy is one of them. I can't remember if it was them that came by door-to-door but definitely shady business practices. Things like having a stickers and logos on their clipboards from Terasen or BC Gas implying affiliation or endorsement (contractually forbidden) and the usual high-pressure sales tactics. Problem was they hired independent contract salespeople - where there were alleged cases of forged client signatures.ADenariusSaved wrote: ↑ Was that Direct Energy Company a scam? Didn't hear good things about it, parents always complained. Seems like Enbridge is the way to go. I remember looking over the stock ENB-T with my coop student in early 2015, it just kept marching upwards with like 5-7% dividends and 0 beta. Looks like they took a hit in the past few years, so it was too good to be true.
Unfortunately there is a "cross over" where I live.... they do not charge delivery fees, etc, for Electricity in my area, but they do have a much higher cost per KwH and do not allow off peak billing at all! So if you use less electricity by staying with gas, the electric bills are astronomically lower here than in the rest of ontario, but if you cross over the line it will be astronomically higher than in the rest of Ontario. The reason for this, is we are on Hydro Québec, not with the rest of Ontario.... but it ends up being cheaper for electric when you use little, but catastrophically more expensive when you use a lot....since the per kwh rates exceed 17c or so now (which is far higher than Ottawa's 7-15c depending on peak/offpeak). When the rates were lower and I first moved here, my electric bills were $400/mo with heat.... Today they would be $800 a month if I was still on electric heat. I have a tiny (and I mean very tiny very efficient/retrofitted or whatever home)... Not everyone get's a choice like that. I current pay about $80/mo for electricity and so far up to $150 for gas in winter (but I haven't received the January bill yet).... it is still much much cheaper for me to be on gas, even if it tripled....because the electric rates here are calculated so differently. For most of Ontario you have peak and offpeak, and you have kind of like a bill that escalates gradually as usage increases....but like I said, because there are no actual fees they charge much higher per KwH and it's like a direct 45 degree angle how high they go here. The calculation is so different, so it never makes sense for a single home in my city to be on Electric. No subsidy, no discount, no OESP, no possible way anyone should ever be on electric for heat here. We get a break when it's low and we get even more punished when it's high. And they don't even allow you to do hybrid solar (where you feed the grid in summer and draw in winter) around here (I tried)...Which is common in many parts of the province.
