Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to do my Member’s statement on a critical situation that we find ourselves in in Inuvik. It’s the gas situation. I’ve had conversations with certain Ministers over this and we are working hard to find a solution in Inuvik and we’re looking at trying to get support from this government.
During our most current business planning sessions that we had last month and part of this month, all the departments recognize the gas situation as something that we’ve got to take into consideration when they’re planning the business plans, how it’s going to affect them. What some don’t realize is that in Inuvik where we’re going through this situation and the cost of living is already high, what I’m concerned about is we’re going to start losing professionals from the community. We’re going to lose teachers; we’re going to lose nurses; we’re going to lose caregivers and people who run programs and services, because they can’t afford to pay those prices. Businesses are going to be affected very hard. They’re going to have to accrue their costs somehow, which means they’re going to increase the goods and services that they provide to the residents of Inuvik and it’s going to put those residents into a poverty situation, which will impact income support.
The situation doesn’t only affect Inuvik, but it’s going to have a rippling effect right across the Northwest Territories. You will see it, and if this government doesn’t make the commitments to address the issue and look at how we can mitigate them, I know where we are making some of our buildings and turning them over to diesel, but the money that’s going into mitigating the effects of this situation could be better spent by investing it into a long-term solution for Inuvik so that later on we don’t have to pay the price. Invest now and we won’t have to pay later.
Throughout this government, throughout this session I will continue to speak on the situation. In Inuvik right now we see a lot of homes up for sale since the announcement of the gas situation in Inuvik. It’s something that we need to address, something that we’d like to get some support on from this government that the residents of Inuvik don’t have to go through some hard times here.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
