Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 23rd the Town of Inuvik issued a media release, entitled “The Town of Inuvik Prepares for the Arctic Energy and Emerging Technologies Conference in June of 2016.” This could not come at a better time. The Town of Inuvik is planning to host this conference and tradeshow from June 13 to 16, 2016, and replace the Inuvik Petroleum Show, which has been successful over the years.
This new approach is going to address a lot of the current needs of not only the community of Inuvik but the Northwest Territories as a whole. If it’s going to show any impact or any importance, it’s going to show that Inuvik is one of the leading communities and one of the leading conferences, such as the petroleum show, and it actually will be one of the leaders moving forward into this new way of looking at alternative energy.
Over the years we have seen a decrease in the activity of oil and gas in the community of Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta region and, most recently, in the Sahtu region. As this happens, we’re also facing the realities in Inuvik of a gas shortage. We’re also seeing the realities of an increase to the cost of home heating fuels and the increased costs of transporting liquid natural gas, which all, in the end, results in a high cost of living for residents of the community of Inuvik.
This year, the government alone will subsidize public housing units and affordable housing to the tune of just over $9 million, plus we just gave a $20 million subsidy to the Power Corporation. Twenty-nine million dollars this year, without looking at a big increase into alternative energies, which I think really needs to be addressed to offset the high cost of living we see a lot of our residents facing.
On top of that $29 million, we’re not even talking about the costs that this government is offsetting by turning a lot of its government buildings over to diesel so that the natural gas can last longer in Inuvik.
I did speak last week to subsidies in this House, but I specifically spoke to subsidies for the homeowner and how we can subsidize them for their high heating fuel.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Yes, last week I spoke on how this government, if they had any new ideas on how we can subsidize the homeowner, the taxpayer, the ones that are contributing to our economy without any good solutions. This is a growing concern for the people in the community of Inuvik. As I said, double income households having a hard time making it paycheque to paycheque.
As the Energy Charrette begins today, I just want to take this opportunity to applaud the Town of Inuvik for taking the leadership, to take the positive step moving into a new direction to finding alternative solutions to address our current gas situation in Inuvik and to address the high cost of living for residents of Inuvik. Like I said, it couldn’t come at a better time, and hopefully, we can find solutions sooner than later. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
