I write in response to Pam Frampton’s June 16 column, “Muskrat Falls — yes, it’s personal (part 3).” I won’t be moving away simply because, like many, I am stuck here. I am disabled and in a wheelchair. My husband (also disabled) and I get $900 a month — total — to live on. I have written many emails (currently the only avenue of communication for me due to speech impairment) pleading with government to stop the Muskrat Falls project because we simply cannot afford for our electricity rates to be any higher. I, too, have put up posters and attended protests, to no avail. My emails were ignored.
If we turn up the heat, we won’t have money for groceries. We will not be alone in this as one third of our population are seniors and roughly 70,000 others are on income support.
Two winters ago, my husband and I lived in one room heated for two hours daily (our kitchen). At night, we slept in a cold room in a bed that was getting damp, clothes were damp and cold, mould started growing on the ceiling. Thankfully last winter was warm and things were not quite as bad. But what if the upcoming winter is cold like the winter of #DarkNL? We will not survive another winter like that.
If we turn up the heat, we won’t have money for groceries. We will not be alone in this as one third of our population are seniors and roughly 70,000 others are on income support. For them and us, heat pumps are beyond reach. How will we survive? Probably not!
Does government care? No! For them and us, there is no leaving.
Wanda White
Broad Cove
