'People are really struggling': Islanders face tough choices amid soaring inflation

A growing number of households on P.E.I. are struggling to make ends meet as high inflation continues to eat away at their budgets.

And it's not just the most vulnerable feeling the pinch. The rising cost of everything from heating oil to groceries is affecting many who have never had money troubles in the past.

Walter MacKinnon, a licensed insolvency trustee in Charlottetown, says calls to his office are up at least 50 per cent in the last four months.

"People are really struggling, and it's people in really all walks of life. Everybody is impacted by what's going on with the general increase in interest rates and the rising cost of everything," he said. 

P.E.I.'s annual inflation rate was 7.4 per cent in February, higher than it's been in 30 years and the highest in the country, according to Statistics Canada. The price of regular unleaded gasoline is $1.67 a litre, up from $1.27 at the same time last year. The price of furnace oil is up even more, from 90.8 cents per litre in April of last year, to its current price of $1.64.

Shannon Cupello, who relies on a furnace to heat her home and bed and breakfast business in Murray River, said she and her partner can no longer afford to fill their oil tank to the top.

"We can throw it on credit cards, but we don't want to pay the interest. We want to make sure we can try to manage it," she said. 

Cupello said she took a second job this winter because her business was already hurting because of COVID-19.

I don't know what's going to happen. It's so unpredictable.— Shannon Cupello

"I don't know what's going to happen. It's so unpredictable," she said.

Others are having to make difficult choices about which bills to pay first, and whether their income will continue to be enough. 

Caleb Klomp, who says his income is "not terrible but also not amazing," said he is always on the lookout for less expensive alternatives.

"It's not just like oil is definitely going up, but everything else is going up too. Even just looking at fuel prices, anything associated with the oil industry is crazy."

Financial consultant Shannon McNutt said some of her clients are starting to save less in order to cover their expenses. 

"Regardless of how much you make, people who considered themselves higher income earners or had a comfortable income, with an increase in expenses, that income is going to seem much more tight than it used to be," she said. 

MacKinnon said the best advice he can give to anyone struggling financially is to make a budget and stick to it.

"I guess I liken it to an elastic. If you take an elastic and put it on your two fingers and stretch it, and you think you've stretched to the limit, then all of a sudden someone says, 'Well, could you stretch that just a little bit more?' And then it breaks. And that's where quite a few people are starting to find themselves," he said.