Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. (English translation not provided.)
Mr. Speaker, last week I spoke about the cost of living and the impacts on our residents in the smaller communities. This is an everyday concern for my constituents, and today I would like to summarize this concern.
This issue is an everyday concern for many residents in smaller communities. Many are struggling to make ends meet. I talked about a young mother of three who has to pay $8 for two litres of milk and almost $90 for formula. If one of her children requires medical attention, this could mean leaving her home and her community to get this service, and that’s an additional cost.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to cost-of-living issues, I’ve talked about the gap between services available to residents in larger communities and those in smaller communities. For example, homes in smaller communities use a water and sewage tank system, while other larger communities have piped systems. They have to accept this by default. That is, where we live in smaller communities, our homes will have to be built differently. This is the wrong approach. This is a basic but very important service we need to start thinking differently about. We should start thinking that every home should have basic services. Presently the infrastructure is not there to do this, and this clearly illustrates the real difference in infrastructure needs in larger and smaller communities.
It’s good to hear the Premier say he does agree there’s a difference in services between larger communities with a vibrant economic sector and those smaller communities that are traditionally based. I also agree with the Premier when he says it will take some work to address these issues.
Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to hear the Premier say he will be establishing a joint committee of Ministers and Ordinary MLAs to specifically look at the cost-of-living issues and the gap in municipal infrastructure services between the smaller and larger communities. Today I may have a couple of questions for the Premier on this.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
