Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as advertised, I held a meeting with my constituents at Range Lake North School last night and, although the turnout was not large, it was a valuable and substantial opportunity for me to get an input from my constituents on a number of issues that are before us here in the House and also to hear from them about what’s important to them.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that we spoke and listened about the new affordable housing initiative, the Yellowknife educational facilities plan, the Deh Cho Bridge project, and lots and lots about a whole issue surrounding WCB, a topic I will speak about later in the session, Mr. Speaker. But another permanent, prominent issue that was raised, which ties into many of the topics I’ve already mentioned, has to do with the cost of living and cost of doing business in the city.

Mr. Speaker, in terms of how important it is for the government to do all it can to help keep these costs and be mindful of that task in all decisions that it makes. Mr. Speaker, every bit of increase in fuel, power, labour costs, WCB rates and other forms of taxes, have a major impact on running of small businesses. Believe it or not, Mr. Speaker, even though Yellowknife is booming, a lot of national chains consider Yellowknife a very unstable market due to the high cost of doing business.

Mr. Speaker, I’m very proud to represent a riding that has so many businesses that enhance the quality of living for Yellowknifers and the NWT residents. Just this coming weekend I’ll have the honour of partaking in the ribbon cutting of another new business, M & M Meats.

But, Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that the overriding concern constituents had was with keeping Yellowknife’s cost of doing business competitive to Alberta because that’s who we compete with. Edmonton is who we are competing with and if we’re going to continue to have the kind of businesses that we have, and if we’re going to continue to have people move here and stay here, and overall to benefit those who have always been here, it is very important for the government to always be mindful about the accumulative effects of all the little costs and the taxes and all the measures that it takes that impacts on doing business for the North. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to share that today. Thank you.

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