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We’ve just weathered a record-breaking cold snap in British Columbia and the provincial government was there to tax us for the sin of staying warm.

Prince George endured minus 44 degrees Celsius, Kamloops gritted its teeth at minus 23C, and even the relatively mild Fraser Valley woke up to a pipe-freezing minus 29C with the wind chill. The weather shut down the Trans-Canada Highway with a total white-out at Chilliwack.

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There were Vancouverites pushing their Aston Martins out of snow banks. Even the Sky Train shut down for a spell.

That’s Edmonton and Moose Jaw weather, not what most are used to in the Lower Mainland.

What good can be pulled out of the deep freeze? Let’s hope British Columbians take a long hard look at their heating bills next month so they can understand how much they are being punished for staying warm. Heating isn’t a luxury when it’s minus 20C for a week.

More than half of British Columbians use natural gas to heat their homes, a fuel once heavily promoted by government and industry as B.C.’s “clean-burning blue flame” that also keeps most of our hospitals, schools, recreation centres and our greenhouses warm.