Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since the last time we sat in this House, I’ve had a lot of meetings with our constituents back home in Inuvik and also other organizations in the NWT. As much as all of the concerns that were brought to my attention were very important, there’s one that’s always going to be very important to me and the constituents and residents of the community I reside in, Inuvik, and that’s the situation we are dealing with right now, and that’s the gas situation.
In January, February and March, we saw really high fuel prices for those that are on the synthetic natural gas system. In fact, in some cases their fuel bills doubled. As a result, it affected their daily lives; it affected their mental health; it affected their family lives as well. This is something that needs to be addressed and we need to find a solution, a short-term and long-term solution that will put the residents of Inuvik at ease in the upcoming winter that they’re not going to be paying an arm and a leg to heat their homes and live comfortably when our winters are getting a lot colder.
As a result, what I have seen in Inuvik is a lot of homes going up for sale. I’m seeing a lot more leasing spaces. We are actually seeing that people who have these high fuel bills are actually being put on a payment plan to pay their fuel bills. That is ridiculous. Not in this day and age; not in the community of Inuvik. This needs to be addressed and needs to be changed and the sooner we can do it, the better.
Over the summer, I see no doubt that after the experience of January, February and March, there are going to be people who don’t want to live in Inuvik and are going to be wanting to move, which will result in the prices of whatever gas we’re on, we’re going to have to find those prices to offset the storage and transportation costs. So we do need to find a solution, like I said, sooner than later.
In the budget address made by the Minister of Finance for the 2013-14 budget, he did mention that there was $100,000 that was being put towards a feasibility study on liquid natural gas. I will be asking the Minister of Finance questions on the status of that, where we are, and what we can do moving forward.
We talk about devolution; we talk about decentralization. Nobody’s going to be wanting to come to live in Inuvik, working in those jobs with the high cost of living already and the high gas prices. They need to be addressed. We need to let people know that we are working on finding a solution and that that solution will come, hopefully, before the winter months and the cold months.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
