Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s almost been two weeks since I raised the issue of gas prices here in Yellowknife and the requirement possibly of legislation, or I should say regulation on this particular issue, the only way to get to the bottom of it. The day after I raised the issue, I had a couple of Ministers – they must have been lost – on our end of the hallway for some reason or another, but a couple of Ministers had asked, did my comments in the House change the price of gas and I’ll have to tell you no, it did not, because I filled up my vehicle the other day and I noticed it’s still stuck solid at $1.38.9, or I should say frozen at that price.
My question of the Minister of MACA is he said two weeks to even consider this particular issue. Has he done anything other than just wait for industry to respond? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Department of Public Works has done some work on this. I had thought that the price was going to go down with some public pressure and being raised here. Apparently that didn’t happen. I will talk to my colleague over at the Department of Public Works and see what the plan is going forward. Thank you.
In the interim, at the suggestion of my colleagues Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Dolynny, they suggested setting up a petition. As such, I have done that on the Legislative Assembly website. Of course, don’t worry, a press release will be on its way very soon.
I think through the petition that the Member has started, we’ll probably get a lot of concerns about the price of gas not only from Yellowknife. I’m sure there are residents across the Northwest Territories, Inuvik for example. I think we’re very low today. I think it might be $1.87. That’s not too bad. I’m sure they will have some concerns with that too. So it’s an issue that affects residents all across the Northwest Territories. I know some would love to pay the price they pay in some of the larger centres but, unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. I’m sure through the petition, that will be the public voice and we’d have to listen to that. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
People in Yellowknife would like to pay the price the expert down in…(inaudible)…had suggested, which was about $1.14 or so, in that range in Yellowknife. A couple of weeks ago when I raised this particular issue – and this is not a point of criticism, but I’m going to ask what the Minister has done since then. This is the area of consumer protection. This issue was a new area for him and he wasn’t familiar with it. He has been Minister for some time in this particular department. In the last two weeks, what has he done to educate himself in these particular areas as to his authority about taking action on this issue that is critical for people of the Northwest Territories?
I educated myself by checking on the gas prices here in Yellowknife. I educated myself by checking on the gas prices in Inuvik and all the other communities across the Northwest Territories to see what they’re paying. I had a brief conversation with our consumer affairs person to see if they’d been getting a lot of complaints and a lot of concerns. He said there wasn’t very much at the moment, but he was sure it was going to pick up. I had assumed, that’s why I spoke to the Member afterwards and I asked him to give me an update, because he was going to check on the prices of gas in the city to see if they had gone down. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So we’ll have to decide if there are any next steps we take from here. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Minister help me and help the House by allowing himself to go get educated in his area of authority on this particular issue? Thank you.
The Minister is very well aware of his authority on this issue and he continues to try to monitor, tries to protect the consumers out there. I think it’s something we as MLAs, not only Ministers, have to do. We have to make them aware, we have to make industry aware, we have to do our due diligence, do our homework to see if they are being charged fair market value. So the Minister is well aware of the authority he has not only in this portfolio but his other portfolios and we will exercise it when we have to. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
