Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In listening to Members talk about their concerns and possible solutions to deal with the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories, are there any discussions the Premier has come across in doing a high cost of living charrette in the Northwest Territories to have people come together and look at ways that they could reduce the cost of living in their communities? Has there been any type of discussion like that that’s so important to people in the small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been looking at finding ways to reduce the cost of living for a long time. There are no silver bullets in doing that. The biggest cost for the average homeowner or family is cost of energy, so we think an Energy Charrette will help us find a way to do exactly what the Member is suggesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Premier is right; there is no silver bullet. Energy seems to be one of the major factors, the high cost of food in our Northern Stores and the lack of employment. We have the resources. Infrastructure seems to be another factor in our smaller, remote communities. If we have one litre of milk here in Yellowknife, one litre of milk in Fort Good Hope or Colville Lake, why is there a difference between that and up in Ulukhaktok? What’s the difference? Where does the price add onto that litre of milk? That is what the people are asking. Or do we just accept the fact that living in the Northwest Territories is costing us a lot of money, to the point of $2 million in subsidies and the fact that when you live further outside the regional centres, you are going to pay a higher price and that’s the fact of the matter, Jack?
Energy is only one component. We have the energy in our communities. The sun doesn’t shine all the time and sometimes there’s no wind. We’ve been asking for wood pellets for a long, long time. There’s still a bunch of barriers to get there. I want to look at some of the real matter-of-fact issues that are the bread and butter issues today, not 10 or 15 years from now.
I think there’s a country song called “The Cold Hard Facts of Life.”
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I think when you compare Yellowknife to Deline or Ulukhaktok or any other community, it’s obvious there's the cost of transportation, the fact that there’s competition in Yellowknife so that keeps the prices down, and also in the small communities the businesses pay the fully burdened cost of energy. They have to pass that on to the consumer.
As a government, as I said, we spend about $200 million subsidizing the cost of living. We have done studies that show in communities like Sachs Harbour, even though you make $100,000, you have to be subsidized to a certain extent. I don’t think there’s too many ways around it.
In trying to find ways to reduce the high cost of living, we’ve determined that the best way to reduce the cost of living is to invest in infrastructure. That’s the most tangible way of doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There is also a song, “Put another Log on the Fire.”
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And that’s free and good for the communities.
I think we need to look at some of those solutions especially for young people. We, in our generation, grew up cutting wood, hauling wood by dog team and then by skidoo. We need to look at those types of solutions.
This is the important issue in the North. Do we accept the cold hard facts that when you live further out than the larger centres it’s going to be a challenge because your options are limited? You don’t have as many options as down in the Yellowknife area. That’s a fact. So, what type of incentives, like Mr. Nadli talked about being a potato farmer, the potato capital in Fort Providence, to have those types of options that the Minister talked about and grabbing that type of energy and imagination of young people to say, this is what we can do to reduce the cost of living. These are the facts, Jack. It’s going to cost a lot in the small communities and your choices are limited. They’re not like Yellowknife. You cannot have that and that’s something we’ve got to look at. So that’s why I’m looking at the energy, the high cost of living charrette, so common folk can sit around and say, well, these are the solutions living in our small communities. Thank you.
I think it’s fortuitous that our Finance Minister is starting his round of budget consultations so he can hear directly from the people. I think going back to, I guess, the old days, if I can use that terminology, where everybody was independent. They went out and got their own country food. They cut their own wood. It was a full-time job making sure they had food on the table. They could grow their vegetables, they’d set nets to catch fish, they’d go do their fall fishery and so on. That was the only way that they could afford to live in those communities, because nobody had power and nobody had running water.
So in modern day equivalency, we have all those amenities. It’s very hard to go back to living that lifestyle, but I think that we’re starting to see more and more of that with ITI. I think we now have 28 communities that are back growing their own food.
We, as a government, are moving more and more to biomass. We have most of our large buildings that are heated by biomass. We’re very close, perhaps a year or two away, from a wood pellet facility, and a lot of the people are moving back and using wood pellets. So I think this Energy Charrette is one of the focuses to get people to be more independent in generating power and so on.
I think those are the kinds of things we have to seriously look at. I think we have no choice. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
