Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What if you went to a grocery store on your way home today to buy a few basic things like four litres of milk and some dish soap, and it costs you $25? Some people might think it was a mistake, but not if you live in Fort Good Hope. It’s normal.
Mr. Speaker, the cost of living in the Sahtu is amongst the highest in the Northwest Territories. We’re paying through our teeth. At $2.42 per kilowatt for electricity, Colville Lake pays the highest power rate of all Northwest Territories communities. Let’s start by having some real discussions on a review of the electrical rates in the Northwest Territories.
Four litres of milk costs around $13.29 in Fort Good Hope, compared to $4.59 in Yellowknife or $7.49 in Inuvik. We need to have a real Food Mail Program so that all milk is the same price everywhere.
The average income in our communities is $42,604 per year. Most employment opportunities are only part-time or seasonal. In Tulita, where the average income is $31,800, 35 percent of the households are in core need. That’s more than twice the territorial average. The price of groceries limits the number of healthy choices families can make.
One of the goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly is to reduce the cost of living. We should invest in more efficient ways to get energy and power into our communities. We need an all-weather road into our communities. Our people should be able to afford the house they live in. We should encourage local stores to shelve our local meat and fish. We need to create jobs by developing renewable resources like tourism, like the Doi T’oh Park or implementing woodchip or other wood product industries like a firewood cutting service for seniors. These may not be high paying jobs, but they would go a long way to helping our families and they support the Assembly’s goals.
Some of the solutions require large investments upfront, but they will benefit our people far longer than most subsidies. Our people deserve the opportunity to succeed. Let’s give them our hope.
I believe it’s time for a new way of thinking. We need to be creative and it’s often said that we need to think outside the box, but right now far too many people in my region, and maybe other people in the other regions, feel that we are cornered into a box waiting to be busted out. Some people are living…
Mr. Yakeleya, your time for Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Some people are living in poverty in this wealthy Northwest Territories, but it shouldn’t be the case, and we here in the House have the responsibility to be creative and do something to change this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
