It’s been talked about for several years and Thursday it came into effect – Nova Scotians no longer pay the provincial tax on home heating electricity.

It was one of the NDP’s banner promises to remove the provincial half of the HST – which works out to eight per cent – from home electricity charges. Shortly after coming into government they announced that would come into effect Oct. 1, in time for the winter.

Opposition parties have criticized the program in the past, saying targeted rebates to the most needy would be more effective. But the NDP called the tax fundamentally unfair.

“We said we would make life more affordable for today’s families and this program does just that,” Deputy Premier Frank Corbett said Thursday in a press release.

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