# Eastern Canadians - explain "energy poverty" grandma situation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233 "2017-01-15T17:13:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/61 "2017-01-16T22:39:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Hydro” in most parts of Canada is a euphemism for “electricity.” > > In fact, most electricity in Ontario is generated by nuclear power. However, the carbon tax imposed by the provincial government applies to all electricity since it’s all fungible (and the province is going broke). The production of cement produces a lot of C02, and nuke plants and hydro dams are primarily made of concrete, so even if we were 100% nuke, a carbon tax would still be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/62 "2017-01-17T00:26:07Z")
But hydro and nuclear certainly don’t produce the same amount of CO[sub]2[/sub] as coal plants. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/63 "2017-01-17T02:48:17Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > The production of cement produces a lot of C02, and nuke plants and hydro dams are primarily made of concrete, so even if we were 100% nuke, a carbon tax would still be appropriate. Everything produces some carbon. A tax on everything isn’t a carbon tax - it will not alter behaviour. A tax that specifically targets things that generate unusual amounts of carbon - which nuclear power absolutely doesn’t do, no matter that they use concrete to make large buildings - would not have the desired effect of a carbon tax. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/64 "2017-01-17T03:15:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > ISTM you could retrofit proper insulation into a crappy old house and it’d pay for itself in a month or two. What is everyone waiting for??? No way. For one, most of us do not have heating bills anywhere near what this woman pays. For two, there’s no telling what happens when you open walls in an older home. (A couple years back I had to redo a balcony. We discovered that the previous contractors had left a 3 metre wide hole behind the ledger board. No wonder there was a leak…) For three, there are a series of incremental fixes you can make before opening walls. Programmable thermostats. Caulking. Window films… ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/65 "2017-01-17T04:59:16Z")
Replace your doors with ones that seal. Old doors often don’t. New doors also have serious insulation inside, instead of being just a moderate collection of planks of wood. Replace a few of your bigger or more leaky windows with modern ones, triple pane argon filled. It will make a huge difference. Be sure you have nice deep insulation in the attic, but that the soffits breath through to vents at the top of the roof. For those who live where heating is not an issue - you would need the same for air conditioning in summer. That uses electricity too. A ventilated attic means you aren’t living beneath an oven. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/66 "2017-01-17T06:10:17Z")
[off-topic again] :o > [@septimus](#): > > You Canadians remind me of Brits who constantly speak of “funny money.” I sometimes have to ask whether the amount is funnily large or funnily small. :smack: I should have posted in the _67-year old Brains Do Malfunction_ thread. _ **Stupid money** _ is the common Brit expression I was thinking of. (Nevermind how I got to “funny” :smack: :o ) ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/67 "2017-01-18T02:28:05Z")
> [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > Also a BC term (given our terrain, hydroelectric is the main (sole?) means of generating electricity out here). Same in Manitoba, heck our Electric and Natural Gas supplying Crown Corp is named [Manitoba Hydro](https://www.hydro.mb.ca/) ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/68 "2017-02-07T00:43:57Z")
New story today about a place in rural Ontario whose electricity usage was $1.30, his total bill was $95.49 including a delivery charge of $82.53. > **[Rural Ontario hydro users hoping for deliverance from high bills](https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2017/02/05/rural-ontario-hydro-users-hoping-for-deliverance-from-high-bills.html)** > > Premier Kathleen Wynne turns her eye to hydro delivery fees as backlash grows and next year’s provincial election looms. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233/69 "2017-02-07T03:11:30Z")
> [@GMANCANADA](#): > > New story today about a place in rural Ontario whose electricity usage was $1.30, his total bill was $95.49 including a delivery charge of $82.53. > > [Rural Ontario hydro users hoping for deliverance from high bills](https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2017/02/05/rural-ontario-hydro-users-hoping-for-deliverance-from-high-bills.html) I’m surprised that so far no one has been plotting pins on a map of Ontario, to determine the delivery radius. I would not be surprised in the least, if there ends up being disparities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eastern-canadians-explain-energy-poverty-grandma-situation/777233.md?page=3)