Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to again discuss the high cost of living here in the Northwest Territories today, and especially the community I am most familiar with, and that is Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, let me be clear; as a government with shrinking revenues, we cannot afford to lose one person from our Territory. It costs us $22,500 every time someone packs up and leaves, usually broke, because they are sick and tired of all their money going to pay bills. If a family of four leaves, it’s over $90,000 that leaves with them. This is happening. People are leaving and our government has got to pay attention to the main reason why, and that is the high cost of living.
We seem to have our heads buried firmly in the snow when it comes to finding any meaningful or tangible ways we can help people reduce the cost of living. “Working poor” is a term that accurately reflects many people in this city. They work hard every day, some of them with two or three jobs in the service industry. Others are our own government workers who, after paying rent, mortgage, utility costs, gas, food, taxes, child care and other monthly expenses, are left with nothing to put away for their family’s future. In fact, even though people are earning more today than 10 or even 20 years ago, there’s little question people today are worse off and we seem like we’re tripping over ourselves to try to make people pay more.
From the smallest items, as if we’re not paying enough for food, charging 25 cents for a plastic bag at the grocery store and for which most people have many other uses for, or spending -- oh, yeah -- we’re not quite sure how much yet on a bridge that will undoubtedly increase the price of everything that is transported across it. We are creating ways to make people pay more.
We need to be all over the federal government to get some relief for people. Like how about tax credits for interest paid on mortgages? How about government-run child care centres? And please, let’s get this heritage fund established already. It’s long overdue. But, then again, savings is a foreign concept to this government. Let’s get the federal government to help fund it from the hundreds of millions of dollars they take every year off of our resources .
This government has not done enough to address the high cost of living. We can’t wait for a Cabinet committee to come forward with ways we can address this.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Like I said, we can’t afford to wait any longer. I think the time has come. We can’t wait for a Cabinet committee to deliver on this. I think the time has come for this government to form a joint committee with Regular Members of this House, to finally get a cost of living special committee off the ground and try to find a way and means in which we can help people out here in this Territory and this city.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
