As many as a fifth of Canadians face “energy poverty” due to high costs, says the Canadian Journal of Public Health. “Depending on the measure, six to 19 percent of Canadian households face energy poverty,” said a peer-reviewed study led by a McGill professor.

“Households facing energy poverty start at a disadvantage in the energy transition,” Mylene Riva, Canada Research Chair in Housing, Community and Health at McGill, said yesterday in a statement. Riva said her researchers documented cases where Canadian homeowners forced to scrimp on winter heating “reported having seen their breath” indoors. “In Canada home heating during the winter months is a matter of life and death,” said the McGill paper.