Province considered multiple options for heating assistance rebate program, MLAs hear

The deputy minister for the department that administers Nova Scotia's heating assistance rebate program told a legislature committee on Wednesday that the provincial government was provided with multiple options for this season's program, including offering the same amount of money as last year.

Ultimately, the government settled on an amount that was $400 lower.

"At the end of the day, we provide options, and government needs to make the decision, which they have," Joanne Munro, the deputy minister of Service Nova Scotia, told MLAs on the legislature's public accounts committee.

The heating assistance rebate program, or HARP, is providing qualifying applicants with a one-time payment of $600 to help cover heating costs this season. Historically, the payment has been $200. Premier Tim Houston announced his government would raise that to $1,000 for 2022-23 to reflect the cost pressures Nova Scotians were facing.

Liberal MLA Brendan Maguire said the need among people applying for HARP this year is just as great as it was last year, yet the government is offering less money. (CBC)

But opposition MLAs at Wednesday's committee meeting pointed out that things are no less challenging now than when Houston announced the top-up, yet the government settled on a lower rate for 2023-24.

Liberal MLA Brendan Maguire said the cost of rent, food and other living expenses remains high, so it's difficult to understand why the government would offer people less than 2022-23. Many people budgeted assuming it would stay the same, he said.

"This year is actually more expensive than last year," he told Munro. "Things didn't go down, they went up."

Delays processing applications

Some people who applied for the program have expressed concerns about delays receiving their payment.

Peter MacLeod, one of 41,000 first-time applicants for HARP, told CBC News that his application was acknowledged in early November, but he's heard nothing since.

The Halifax-based senior said he turned to HARP for the first time because his living expenses continue to rise.

"You know, the pension just don't cut it anymore," he said.

Monro said there have been 125,783 applications since the program opened in October, about 111,000 of which have been processed and 103,920 approved. Although the department aims for an eight-week turnaround, she said staff faced 85,000 applications in the first week of the program and some applications weren't ready to be processed right away.

Service Nova Scotia deputy minister Joanne Munro (right) speaks during Wednesday's meeting of the legislature's public accounts meeting. (CBC)

The initial surge overwhelmed the Service Nova Scotia team, despite bringing on 36 temporary workers and training other in-house staff to help. The department had people working weekends and holidays and provided overtime in an effort to clear the backlog, said Munro, but staffing availability was a limiting factor.

She told reporters after the meeting that any outstanding applications or any that come in between now and the end of March application deadline will be processed within the eight-week standard or faster.

"We're feeling like we climbed the mountain now."

New Democrat MLA Lisa Lachance noted that the level of demand this season was in line with the department's own estimates. For that reason, Lachance told reporters they wished there had been more preparation to meet the influx of applications.

New Democrat MLA Lisa Lachance says the government must assess the program to ensure it is effective. (CBC)

Lachance said it was "disappointing and surprising" to hear last year's rebate level was presented as an option to the government but the Tories settled on a lower payment.

"If it was needed last year, it was needed this year," they said. "And it was probably needed more this year."

Lachance also expressed concerns about what appears to be a lack of evaluation work by government staff to measure the effectiveness of HARP and other assistance programs.

"We need to look across what we're doing and [ask], are we making lives better? How do people feel that their lives have been improved by these programs?

"And if we don't know that — so if we're just counting numbers in and out — that doesn't tell us anything about how Nova Scotians are being supported."

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