The Sask NDP is speaking out after the Government of Saskatchewan has added around $1 billion to the deficit, $813 million of which is going to SaskPower.

Seniors living on fixed incomes are worried that the money added to the deficit will be paid off by an increase in their power bills.

Darcy Warrington, NDP MLA for Saskatoon-Stonebridge, says the additional funding for SaskPower will more than likely result in increased power bills across the province, hitting those on smaller incomes the hardest.

“We’re really concerned that on fixed incomes, people shouldn’t have to get a second job, people shouldn’t have to be asking friends and family for money, or moving, not only out of the neighbourhood but out of the city in order to afford the life that they deserve.”

D’Arcy Hande, a senior living in Saskatoon, says that many seniors do not have additional money in their budgets to support a power bill increase.

“We do not have the flexibility to budget 20, 30, 50 dollars a month extra, every time the costs go up. Whether it’s rental costs, of course the power rates are going to be factored into our rent increases.”

Hande says many seniors may have to move out of there homes if they cannot afford the increased costs.

“The options seem to be kind of grim for me, let’s say that. I’ll have to move somewhere else if my rent goes up by $100 a month and it continues at that pace, obviously whatever savings I’ve got are going to disappear.”

The NDP says they would like to see the government diversify their options for energy production to prevent more losses from SaskPower.

Along with the money being used to fund SaskPower, $194 million was also needed to pay off the carbon price fuel charges that weren’t collected by the province.