Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you all know, the residents of the Northwest Territories this summer hit a wall, the wall of cost of living. They’re concerned with the rising cost of living in the Northwest Territories.
It saddened me this summer to hear a lot of long-term Northerners talking about leaving the Northwest Territories because of the cost of living. The low water rates and the potential 13 percent increase in the cost of power was one of those things that basically hit the wall and they said, that’s it, we have a crisis, we need to leave, we’re talking about leaving.
Yesterday the Premier announced, and last month they announced, that they were going to pay the $20 million to eliminate that 13 percent. But that’s only a quick fix.
Yesterday the Premier talked about an Energy Charrette, and we need to look at that energy cost because that’s one of the biggest factors. We need to look at alternative energies, biomass options, conservation of energy as well as the natural gas and LNG options out there for us in the Northwest Territories to lower the cost of living for the taxpayers.
But energy is only one situation. We need to look at our taxation. Our Cabinet wants to talk about increasing the population by 2,000 people over the next few years. It used to be that people came to the Northwest Territories as an opportunity. But the problem is that the cost of living is rising and the cost of taxation is rising, so the money that they’re taking home is decreasing.
We need to talk to the federal government about increasing northern residency deductions. We need to look at other options for taxation. We need to lower the cost of gas. We need to lower personal taxes. We need to lower small business taxes. The NWT needs to be the place of opportunity again. We need to take action on the cost of living in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
