A new report from United Way Bruce Grey finds that energy affordability cannot be understood by looking at electricity or natural gas prices alone. Increasingly, the question is whether households have enough income to absorb the cost of essential energy at all.
The Energy Poverty Brief brings together Ontario Energy Board data, Westario Power data and United Way Bruce Grey’s own Utility Assistance Program data to examine energy affordability from three perspectives: the provincial electricity system, a local electricity distributor, and households seeking emergency assistance.
The three datasets tell a remarkably consistent story.
Between 2019 and 2023, the number of residential electricity accounts in Ontario grew by just 4.1%, while residential arrears dollars increased by 118.7%. In Westario Power’s service area, residential accounts grew by 3.9%, while the number of residential accounts in arrears increased by 60.2% and the value of arrears increased by 73.7%.
United Way Bruce Grey’s data show what those regulatory numbers cannot: the household budget behind the utility account.
In 2025–26, United Way Bruce Grey supported 299 households representing at least 592 people and facilitated $172,116 in direct utility grants. Among households for which income information was available, the average annual household income was approximately $28,368.
“We have spent years talking about energy poverty primarily through the cost of energy,” said Francesca Dobbyn, Executive Director of United Way Bruce Grey. “Energy prices absolutely matter, but these data ask us to widen the lens. Even relatively affordable energy can be unaffordable when household income is not enough to cover housing, food, transportation and all the other essentials competing for the same dollars.”
The report also identifies a distinctly rural dimension to energy poverty.
Approximately 70% of United Way Bruce Grey’s utility grant dollars purchased wood, propane, and furnace oil in 2025–26.
Provincial assistance programs provide support for regulated electricity and natural gas costs, but delivered heating fuels such as wood, propane, and furnace oil fall outside LEAP. United Way Bruce Grey uses locally raised funds to help fill that gap.
“For many rural households, the question isn’t simply whether they can afford their electricity bill,” Dobbyn said. “It is whether they can afford the propane delivery, fill the oil tank, or purchase enough dry firewood to heat their home through the winter. If we only look at electricity data, we miss a significant part of the energy-poverty picture in rural Ontario.”
The report also examines a significant increase in applications to Ontario’s Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP).
Electricity-distributor LEAP applications across Ontario increased from 11,368 in 2019 to 18,806 in 2024. However, United Way Bruce Grey cautions against interpreting that 65.4% increase as an equivalent increase in energy poverty.
The Ontario Energy Board clarified to United Way Bruce Grey that income eligibility expanded in 2024 and that distributors must now provide sufficient LEAP funding to assist all eligible applicants. Earlier LEAP participation could therefore have been constrained by narrower income eligibility and available funding.
But the distinction between LEAP and an ongoing electricity rebate such as the Ontario Electricity Support Program is important.
LEAP provides emergency assistance for households experiencing qualifying electricity or natural gas arrears. Expanding the income threshold did not create those arrears. It allowed households experiencing financial difficulty at a broader range of incomes to qualify for emergency help.
“That is an important distinction,” Dobbyn said. “More people becoming eligible for emergency arrears assistance does not mean the eligibility change created the need. It means households who previously earned too much to qualify can now be recognized when they are already struggling to pay an essential energy bill.”
United Way Bruce Grey said the findings should encourage policymakers to connect conversations about energy affordability with housing affordability, income adequacy, and the overall cost of basic needs.
The report recommends preserving flexible cross-fuel assistance in rural communities, pairing regulatory data with community-level evidence, and examining the next full year of LEAP data alongside arrears and disconnection data.
It also cautions against attributing the trends to any single utility, energy policy, or household characteristic.
Westario Power is included in the report as United Way Bruce Grey’s geographically specific local electricity lens and long-standing community partner. Its data are used to understand how broader Ontario trends appear locally, not to assess the distributor’s performance.
“The value of putting these datasets together is that each tells us something the others cannot,” Dobbyn said. “The OEB data shows the system. Westario helps us see the local electricity picture. Our program data introduce the household, their income, and the different fuels they are actually trying to purchase. When you put all three together, the conversation changes.”
The Energy Poverty Brief: What provincial, local utility and community data tell us about household energy affordability in Bruce Grey is available from United Way Bruce Grey at unitedwayofbrucegrey.com.
Households seeking support with energy poverty are encouraged to call 211 to access local and provincial programs.
United Way Bruce Grey works with community partners across Bruce and Grey Counties to address poverty and strengthen community well-being. Its Utility Assistance Program helps eligible households maintain access to essential energy, including locally funded assistance for wood, propane and furnace oil.
