Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Dan McTeague in today’s Yellowknifer says basically the price of fuel in Yellowknife should be around $1.16. He highlights about a 22 cent difference that who knows where that money is really going. He emphasizes about a two cent difference that should exist between Yellowknife and Hay River, not 17 cents as of today or 26 cents as of yesterday.
So my question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but rightly so, as the Minister who is responsible for consumer protection. So my question quite clearly is this: Would the Minister be willing to take the necessary steps to delegate his department to set a process in place that develops fuel regulations to protect Northerners? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re well aware of the article in the paper and the fact that many residents here in Yellowknife have an issue with the price of gasoline in Yellowknife. If we were to get some concern from the general public, if they have specific questions that they might want answered, I would advise them to contact consumer affairs, and we will look at them on a case-by-case basis. Thank you.
Thank you. What the Minister basically said is the public has to go and complain and complain, but the problem is quite obvious. Members can speak quite loudly and clearly.
What is stopping this Minister from taking some action to show the consumer that they actually care about the fact that they work hard for those paycheques? Because right now what I’m hearing is let’s do nothing until they really complain and we have to. Thank you.
Thank you. Make no mistake about it, Municipal and Community Affairs does care, and that’s why we have the consumer affairs department. This is private enterprise, and prices are set by the operators here in the capital. If we were to have to try and regulate gas prices, it would be a long process. However, I can commit to the Member that we will do some due diligence here, do a little bit of research, and try to see what we can come up with. But the fact that if we had to go to regulation, I mean if it’s a long-drawn-out process, I’m sure it would take an amount of time. Thank you.
Thank you. I’m going to acknowledge and thank the Minister for that openness to take a look at it, but I will disagree with him in the sense of the process and problem. New Brunswick, PEI, as well as several other places do this. So hence there is a model that exists. The question is: What does he actually mean he’ll do when he says they’ll take a look at this? Of course, he also has said he’s well aware of this problem highlighted in the newspaper. So the fact is we’re being disadvantaged, if not taken advantage of, by retailers. There is a public role in this, Mr. Speaker, and I expect the Minister to take that full responsibility of being aware of it. Thank you.
Thank you. We do take the concerns of the public very seriously here. Again, I pointed out that there is a process that we have to go through, and I’m sure the governments that the Member had mentioned just didn’t do it in a day. There are opportunities for us here in the Legislative Assembly to get the message out there, and by the Member asking questions is one of them. There’s also an opportunity to move a motion to have us have a look at this. But regardless, we are monitoring this, and we will continue to monitor it and see what options might be available to Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. PEI does this. New Brunswick does this. Why does the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs need a push or a shove from a motion or Member’s statement to do the right thing? Mr. Speaker, why doesn’t Municipal and Community Affairs do the right thing on their own? They know what the problem is; they could do it, so why don’t they?
Thank you. I have committed to the Member that I will have a look at this and see what options are available to us. Again, it may be a long-drawn-out, expensive process, but I have committed to having a look at this to see what options might be available to our department as to what we can do. Again, I’m expecting we’ll probably run into some reluctance on the operators’ part. But again, it’s consumer affairs protection, and it’s what we need to keep in mind here. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
