The increase in the cost of gas hurt, but the rapid rise in the price of furnace oil hurt even more. Like many Islanders, my partner and I rely on furnace oil to heat our house. This winter we found ourselves grappling with tough choices to help keep that cost down. We ramped up the use of our wood stove and we found ourselves trying to make the gas in our tank last enough for prices to drop just a little before our next fill. Sure, we could improve the insulation in our old farmhouse or switch to another heating source, but renovations take time and money and prices went up too fast to get ahead of it. Now, any money we might have spent on renovations has already been spent just to get by. Everything really is getting harder I know I'm not imagining this, and I know the data backs me up. P.E.I.'s inflation rate was among the highest in the country, and has been for years driven in large part by the price of food and rent. The cost to rent has continued to rise and the rental vacancy rate sits around 0.8 per cent