Nearly 8,000 applications that were denied for a home heating rebate this past winter would have met the criteria in years gone by, a CBC News analysis has found.
Advocates say the situation shows Nova Scotians are struggling with the high cost of living and the government is not responding adequately. But the province says it gave what it could to the province’s most vulnerable.
Data about the Heating Assistance Rebate Program (HARP) shows 7,988 applications submitted for the 2025-26 season were disqualified based on income, but would have qualified if not for a cut to the program’s eligibility.
Last year the province reduced income thresholds for HARP by 40 to 45 per cent. It also reduced the value of the rebate by more than 30 per cent.
By winter’s end, the province had given the $400 rebate to about 54,000 households, but it did not use up all the money that was budgeted — $11 million was left on the table.
Energy affordability advocate Juli Bishwokarma said it’s “quite disheartening” that so many low-income households were denied the rebate while the budget went underused. She said HARP’s income cap does not represent where energy poverty ends.
“Someone can be just above a cut-off and still be making those impossible choices of heating or eating, or heating or choosing medication that they cannot go without,” said Bishwokarma, an energy co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre.
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The number of households that missed out because of eligibility changes could be even larger than what CBC News was able to tally.
The data — released to CBC under freedom of information laws — contained details for about 65,500 applications, but government officials have previously said there were 72,500 applications submitted. Some applications were excluded from the data package because they were still open or incomplete at the time of the request, a government spokesperson said.
HARP is administered by the Department of Service Nova Scotia. No one from the department was made available for an interview.
“Each year we review the grant’s eligibility criteria with a focus on helping those who need it the most with the resources we have,” spokesperson Susan McKeage said in an email.
She said the province is trying to grow the economy to maintain and enhance programs, including HARP.
“While we do this work, government is working to make life more affordable for Nova Scotians including initiatives like the Provincial Tax Refund for Low-Income Seniors, raising the personal tax exemption to reduce tax burdens, indexing tax rates and reducing the HST by one per cent.”
Miriam Williams, a leader with the tenant advocacy group ACORN, said all government measures aimed at affordability — such as the ones McKeage listed — are “very well appreciated.”
“But frankly speaking, it’s just not enough,” she added.
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Williams said it’s “tragic” that so many applicants who would have previously qualified for HARP were denied. She said the rebate may seem like a small amount of money, but for some households it can materially change the budget for an entire winter.
“A lot of those families can barely cover rent and food as it is. They really depended on things like the heating rebate to kind of just make ends meet,” Williams said.
Last year, the after-tax income cap for HARP was $30,000 for single people and $45,000 for families. The value of the rebate was $400. Each of the two previous years, the caps were $55,000 and $75,000, respectively, and successful applicants got $600.
The program was even broader in the winter of 2022-23 — with an income cap of $85,000 and a rebate of $1,000 — but the government indicated at the time it would be a one-time top-up.
Prior to that, the rebate had been $200 since 2009. McKeage said last year government decided it would be “permanently doubled.”
The budget for HARP last year was about $33 million, and this year’s provincial budget earmarked the same amount for the coming winter.
Applications typically open on Oct. 1, with the eligibility criteria and rebate value announced shortly beforehand.
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