Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to refer my questions back to my Member’s statement today, when I talked about regulation of our fuels here in the Northwest Territories. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Finance, who had asked me earlier to give him a reprieve on cost of living and tax questions. So my questions will be focused on fuel regulation.
This fuel regulation is something that will help balance the equation where fuel prices are high and consumer protection is low. I’d like to know what this Minister of Finance is doing to make sure we can bring fuel regulation to the Northwest Territories to stabilize prices and protect our consumers.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to point out that only Alberta and the Yukon have on highway gasoline tax rates lower than the NWT, and only Alberta and the Yukon have lower diesel rates. We haven’t touched our fuel taxes since 1997. Five other jurisdictions currently have regulation, with what could only be called mixed success.
The Conference Board of Canada has determined that while there may be some initial benefits, the long-term benefits are not there. In fact, in PEI, for example, in spite of all their regulation they end up with the highest before tax gasoline prices in Canada. In 2005, for example, PEI, which has regulation, witnessed and experienced the effects when an independent fuel company refused to supply. They said they couldn’t afford to supply the gas at the regulated price because they were losing so much money, which created immediate impacts in the community and in the province, with the same also happening in New Brunswick.
So are we actively considering this type of approach? Not at this time. I committed in the House yesterday to share information we do have on this particular topic to discuss with committee, but we are not at this point planning to institute anything of this nature.
Mr. Speaker, there are also other places — Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Quebec — that do this. I would look to the Minister and ask him where he is putting protection again. Is he putting it in the hands of protecting the producer, or is he going to look at finally putting it in the hands of the consumers?
You know, the choice is very clear. We can create consumer confidence, and that’s our job, here, to do this. So I ask the Minister again: will he review this file and take a look at the situation? If we do one single thing for protecting consumers, that’s the best thing we can do on this file.
Mr. Speaker, we have the lowest tax regime, in my understanding, in the country in terms of these fuels. We haven’t touched our fuel taxes since 1997. We don’t want to get ourselves involved, nor do we have the ability to set rack prices and then market prices and those types of things, which fluctuate sometimes daily.
There are market forces at play here, and that’s not an area we are involved in. We have some role to play in the small communities through the Petroleum Products Division. In terms of the market communities we are looking at keeping our costs as low as possible in terms of what we are requiring for this very important substance, but we are not actively pursuing it. I have committed to share the information with committee to discuss and let them review the detail so that they can have full information. Then once we all share the same information, we can have a more informed discussion.
Mr. Speaker, I like how the Minister coins “market forces at play,” and I’m always interested in how market forces seem to be at play when you don’t get new fuel supply. The iceroad is not working; the ferry is not working, but those little fix-it things flapping around with the new price, and higher and higher and higher — that’s all market force? I think market force at play is called competition, not gouging.
Can this Minister today commit to putting something on the table right now that proves we’re protecting the consumer and we are showing that the consumers are not being protected and not being gouged? Does he have anything to show that confidence?
Mr. Speaker, we have before us the challenge of cost of living in the Northwest Territories, one of the costs we all bear. But every country, every other jurisdiction is also facing the rising cost of energy. The market forces are hurricanes in the Gulf. In Yellowknife it’s freeze-up and breakup; those are two of the forces that affect the cost. There are free market factors here. We don’t have government levers that allow us to involve ourselves in that market, nor do I think we would really want to — rack prices and all those types of things.
I will honour the commitment to provide the information to committee, and we can have the discussion — probably best through the business planning process — on this particular issue. There are going to be many other related issues to cost of living that we’re going to have to talk about to tie into this as well, so we have to have the full spectrum of discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, it’s funny. I keep hearing about this business planning process. It’s almost the same excuse I give my kids when they say: Daddy, buy me this; buy me this. I say: wait till Christmas; wait till Christmas. Everything from this side of the Cabinet is: oh, don’t worry; wait for the business planning process; it will take care of everything. I cannot wait for the business planning process. We are going to be so busy.
Mr. Speaker, if the Minister is too nervous or unwilling to say, “No, I don’t know what to say,” would he give us a clear answer and tell us and show us where we are protecting our consumers on this file? I’ll tell you, if we start with the fuel regulation system, we start on solid ground and finally demonstrate that we are putting our consumers first. Can the Minister prove this, in any fact, rather than talking about the market forces that are at play when we are not getting any supply?
Mr. Speaker, the Member must have a really tough time as Christmas approaches if he can’t wait. I have committed to share the information with the committee. We have just heard the concern raised here about the need to consult, to talk before we plan stuff.
If I came in and said I have decided, in my wisdom over coffee in the morning — that I have just dreamed up this regulatory process and we are going to do it because I think it’s a good idea…. I would suggest to you once again, as I have previously, that we have heard very clearly the need to do this through the process.
The business planning process was somewhat truncated last time because we were a new Assembly. This is going to be our first and full cycle through the business planning process. It’s going to start about mid-November. There has been work done all over the summer and the fall to get ready for this, and it’s a very key, critical process. It is going to drive and define what goes into the budget. The Member knows that, and he knows it’s an important process. That is where the best opportunity is to go to have these discussions about these types of changes.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
