Alfred Moses

Mr. Speaker, that is a high number of residents that are consuming the synthetic gas at the moment at a very high cost. Any residents that are private or in a market rent area, they are paying a pretty high cost right now, which I think in turn puts a high cost on this government when we talk about deferred maintenance and other projects where other dollars could go.

Can the Minister confirm that there has been an increase in the costs from when Inuvik went from natural gas to synthetic gas last year over the period of two or three months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to rise in the House and speak to an initiative that I’ve spoken to on many occasions, and that’s the Inuvik gas situation.

Last week there was a pretty big meeting in Inuvik where there was a lot of concern from the community about business and residential. Yesterday I spoke about eradicating poverty in the Northwest Territories, but with the situation we have going on in Inuvik right now, the operating people at or below the poverty line were having a hard time just making ends meet.

I know that we’ve had this discussion before, where we’ve said people are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the committee allowing me to make some general comments with regard to the budget.

First off, the whole budget process has proved quite interesting how it works. We heard some very strong comments yesterday by some of the Members on this side of the House. It got me thinking last night, when I was leaving the Assembly, that it is quite interesting how we get to this process in terms of budgeting. At one point during the fiscal year, we do see the budget ahead of us and we look at it, we break it down and give recommendations and it comes back to us. What...

In regards to the Dempster Highway there, has there been any additional costs for, not the upgrade, but mostly the maintenance for the transportation and the propane, and as soon as the LNG gets going with the Power Corp, are there going to be any extra maintenance costs to offset the extra wear and tear on the Dempster Highway for the next fiscal year or even as soon as it starts operating?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Transportation in regard to the ferry operations and the Dempster Highway, specifically working with the gas situation in Inuvik. I just want to get an update on what’s happening with the Mackenzie ferry and what are the timelines he’s looking at in terms of operations at the Mackenzie ferry. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that is a significant increase that the government is paying to subsidize these housing units. I just want to ask the Minister if there is a way to mitigate that. Would the Minister look at possibly… Well, even before that, the road was shut down recently due to some weather conditions. I know we did put money into the ferry system to prolong the opening of the road. Should the road close down again or the ferry system, something happens to it and we do run out, we don’t have storage for synthetic gas or the natural gas well runs out, what would the cost be to convert all of these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am just going to follow up to my Member’s statement. I will have questions for the Minister of Housing in regard to how we can mitigate the use of our gas consumption in the Inuvik region. We are throwing money at this problem, which we should be looking at how we can do some prevention, promotion and increase that wealth if we are also keeping the cost low for our residents.

My first question is to the Minister of Housing. How many of our housing units are currently on natural gas or the synthetic gas system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the upgrades to the Louis Cardinal and the ferry system, does the Minister expect any disruptions during that time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I know we’ve done some upgrades to the Louis Cardinal ferry at the Mackenzie Crossing. Have any upgrades or any enhancements been done to the Abraham Francis? I know it’s a smaller river and a smaller crossing, but would there been any disruptions in the crossing at the Abraham Francis that would affect all the investment that we put into the Louis Cardinal ferry to have a different impact on the opening of the road during this time?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there is a lot of work being done on this situation. I think this government should also take a lead role, not only by supplying funding dollars but look at ways we can regulate or mitigate the consumption that some of our housing units are using in the synthetic gas. It would decrease the costs and that can go into deferred maintenance or even housing repairs.

Does the Minister have any kind of campaign in place that might be able to tell the residents in the housing units on their energy consumption so that we can prolong that well until we find a longer...