By Zenab Bagha
A charity organization that helps low-income families, seniors, and disabled persons pay their heat and hot water bills in the frigid winter months has come to Ottawa.
But Share the Warmth’s efforts are receiving the cold shoulder from local utility companies.
André Fontaine, an outreach worker at the Centretown Community Health Centre, says unless the organization receives support from Ottawa Hydro, “people will still be in the cold.”
Raed Abdallah, Ottawa Hydro’s supervisor of customer relations, says the company will not make a commitment pending the formation of the mega-city, when all local utility companies will become one.
“Share the Warmth asked for a considerable amount of money, around $10,000, and we can’t afford to make that kind of expenditure while we’re in a state of transition,” he says.
Share the Warmth is run almost entirely by volunteers. Corporate sponsors and utility companies cover its administration costs, allowing the organization to use every cent of public donations to buy heat for those living at the poverty line.
In the five years since it started, the organization has assisted nearly 20,000 households in the Toronto area.
“This is a last resort program for people in emergency situations, and who aren’t on social assistance,” says Edward De Gale, founder and executive director of Share the Warmth.
“We wanted to address poverty in a very direct way and food and shelter are already being addressed by other organizations.”
In Ottawa, people can apply for assistance at any one of its 13 service agencies, including the Centretown Community Health Centre.
“There’s a big need, a lot of people at the end of the month don’t know whether to pay the rent bill or the hydro bill, so they get kicked out either for not paying the rent or the hydro,” says Andre Fontaine.
De Gale agrees. “As more people find themselves one pay-cheque away from homelessness, there is a significant demand for our services,”he says.
But so far, only two people have approached the Centretown Community Health Centre for help. Fontaine says applicants who are eligible for assistance are limited to those who use natural gas. This is because Enbridge, a natural gas company, is the only energy company in Ottawa that subsidizes Share the Warmth.
“Very few people can afford heating of any sort, let alone natural gas,” says Fontaine. “We need to put more pressure on Ottawa Hydro and other oil companies to support it so we can meet the needs of everyone.”
Cliff Gazee, co-chair of the Regional Task Force on Poverty says, the region is discussing a working arrangement with Ottawa Hydro and Share the Warmth.
But Abdallah says Ottawa Hydro is concerned that the money it would spend on Share the Warmth would be used elsewhere instead of on people living in Ottawa-Carleton.
De Gale says that’s not the case. “Every dollar from Ottawa will buy a dollar’s worth of energy for someone living here. We’re performing a public service for this region, so I don’t understand why any company wouldn’t want to support us.”