By Kris Sims
OTTAWA – The Ontario woman who tearfully pleaded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for relief from her hydro bills says she has not heard from anyone in the PMO since.
“I wanted him to give me a way that he was going to make things better, I did cry when I did hug him, but that was because he said ‘thank you for coming and I’m going to fix it, ’” Kathy Katula told Evan Solomon on his Ottawa Now program on News Talk Radio 580 CFRA Tuesday. “Right now I don’t have a whole lot of faith in him, unfortunately.”
The resident of Buckhorn, Ontario, traveled to Peterborough to attend one of Trudeau’s traveling town hall meetings on January 13th.
During the question and answer period, Katula stood and told the Prime Minister that her hydro bills are $1000, more than her mortgage, and she’s left with just $60 for groceries.
She implored him to not impose a federal carbon tax on top of her already crushing hydro bills and Trudeau embraced the woman after the exchange.
Katula says no one from the Prime Minister’s office or Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office has contacted her since the on-camera hug. “Nobody called to see if I was ok…. nobody, not a soul.”
Ontario's electricity prices have more than doubled in the last 10 years.
Premier Wynne admitted before Christmas it was a mistake to not pay more attention to the surging cost of power in Ontario and vowed to make changes.
A PMO spokesperson replied to CFRA's request for comment late Tuesday night, after this article was published. The statement reads, "[Status of Women] Minister [Maryam] Monsef's staff have followed up and reached out to her, to let her know they are available to help answer her questions and provide assistance if they can. As the challenges raised by Ms. Katula fall within the jurisdiction of the province of Ontario, the Prime Minister's Office have been in touch with the province to follow up."