Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said yesterday, Yellowknife is number one; the Northwest Territories is number one. What was that again? We’re number one. Power rates continue to be the highest.
If you take 1,000 kilowatts here in Yellowknife, you have to pay over $300; 1,000 kilowatts in Iqaluit, $275. We continue to be number one and we get dwarfed by Whitehorse where a thousand kilowatts only charges you $146. We’re number one, thanks to the Premier in his old job when he re-engineered the power rates. He engineered the communities’ rates, which I am certainly happy that he did help them, because as I said yesterday, if you’re not on the hydro, I don’t know how you afford your power bill. But why didn’t we engineer some of Yellowknife power rates like we did?
We must find a way to make the cost of living liveable here in the Northwest Territories, certainly here in Yellowknife. It’s not an insurmountable problem. Find a way. Rather than being bureaucrats sitting on the seven stumps across the way, let’s be politicians, let’s be daring, let’s connect with our constituents on issues that matter to them. Even in talking to the Economic Opportunities Strategy, the Governance Council even recognized the fact that power rates hold Yellowknife back. It is seen as a negative, certainly not as a positive.
Thirty cents per kilowatt cannot help sustain our population. They cannot help the everyday blue collar worker. The working family suffers from this day after day after day as they try to get by. We’ve heard about rising fuel prices. No action. We need these costs of our power to come down to what is considered normal. Why spend millions and millions of dollars and on Come Make Your Mark? Who wants to live here at 30-some cents a kilowatt? People are leaving. The exit sign is certainly getting well used. I have heard this from countless people who leave the Northwest Territories because they can be paid the same types of dollars elsewhere and certainly cut their cost of living easily in half. Every day we struggle. Every day working families struggle because of the cost of living. It is time we stop talking about this and demonstrate that as politicians we’re willing to do something.
I started off by saying we are number one. Yes, we beat Whitehorse, we beat Iqaluit and we lost 83 people from last year’s census third quarter. We peaked out. We lost 83 people since then and people are leaving. Why? Because the cost of living is killing Northerners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s time to do something.
