Mr. Speaker, today I have questions for the Premier or the Minister responsible for reducing the cost of living — the cost of living for communities in the Tu Nedhe in the area of food, fuel, power and gasoline. The cost of living is extremely high in those areas. An example is that in order to reduce the costs themselves, the people would supplement their food by hunting. However, the cost of gasoline is so high that people are unable to do that.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there is a plan to address the problem on a short-term basis. A lot of the costs of living are laid out. The reduction to costs of living is laid out. Awareness of energy, hydro strategy and so forth are all items that are in this year’s budget but have long-term implications. I want to know if there are any plans that have short-term impacts on the cost of living in the smaller communities.
The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
The area of energy is, as we hear in our communities, having a huge impact on the lives of individuals, holding people back from their potential. The cost of goods in our small stores in the communities is huge. I shared, for example, a trip to Paulatuk. One tomato in that Northern Store in Paulatuk was four dollars and some cents. I’m sure it would be similar in Lutselk’e. We see it, for example, when the ice crossings go out. The stores automatically bump up their prices, because the transportation costs are there.
One of the things we’re doing, that is ongoing, is, for example, the Territorial Power Support Program — helping the cost of living that way. Ongoing on an annual basis for those families who are on income support or use it from time to time, the food basket is adjusted for cost of living and set-up — I believe if not by the community, then by a regional process. What we do have to look at, and there are other activities.... For example, within ITI, for those who go out hunting, we set up a fund that, once matched by the band or the hunters’ and trappers’ organization or the regional body, they can draw down that funding to help their constituents in that area. There are some dollars left in that for communities that haven’t drawn that down. That was one-time funding that’s stretched over quite a number of years since it was introduced. There’s some funding still left in there.
The MLA from Nunakput advised me that a tomato has doubled in price since then.
Interjection
And it’s the same one, yes.
Laughter.
I would like to ask the Premier if he could give me an idea of the time frame they’re looking at to have some sort of impact on the hydro strategy and the energy programs.
There’s the overall hydro initiative across the Northwest Territories and trying to bring that to either investment or industry, as well as communities. The three mini-hydro projects, we’re looking at continuing investment in this year to see if they can be put in place. For example, Lutselk’e was a community that has been identified in that area. We’re looking to continue that work in this upcoming year.
The bigger picture, as the Members have said earlier, is correct. Some of these large initiatives are going to take quite a number of years for ourselves as government. We’re going to have to find partners to build the larger hydro development potential in the North to bring the cost of living down once and for all in our communities — or, for example, a gas pipeline to get natural gas in the communities to convert from diesel to natural gas to give a more stable source. Those are a number of areas.
The cost-of-living initiative: as I said earlier, we’ve instructed Ministers who are lead on this file to set up times for committees to start getting some of that dialogue and input to see if there are other ideas we can bring to the table.
The other one is the Food Mail Program, which is supposed to help reduce the cost of transportation of food to the communities. We’re starting to work at trying to get that back and to propose some changes to it. It is administered through Canada Post, I believe. We’re going to have a look at it. We are quite concerned. There’s a substantial amount of money from the federal government for the program, but we see little benefit for the North. We need to have that re-addressed.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Premier if they’ve examined any sort of subsidies that other jurisdictions might be using to reduce the cost of living.
We as a government have looked at our subsidy programs, and there are quite a number of them. When you look at the overall public housing package, the Territorial Power Support Program, the Seniors’ Fuel Subsidy, Income Support and some of these other investments, we haven’t had an updated review in comparison to other jurisdictions. We know that on a lot of fronts we do have a better program than quite a number of jurisdictions in Canada. But, again, we’d be willing to sit down with committee members to go through that and have a look at that initiative.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve just a short question. Would the Premier look at other jurisdictions, specifically for the reduction of food costs, where they have communities where there is fly-in?
We would be willing to do that. We’re aware, for example, that the Food Mail Program affects quite a number of other jurisdictions in high-cost areas, and we’re going to plug into that to see how it works, to see if they’re feeling the same impact or have the same concerns we have. So we would be prepared to look at that type of initiative, yes.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
