David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up on the questions I had earlier, but this time I’m going to ask the questions of the Minister of Finance.

The one thing I think residents here in the Northwest Territories have a difficult time with is that we ship our resources south — look at the Norman Wells Pipeline, the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project — and then they get trucked back to us, and our residents get charged exorbitant prices for the fuel once it gets back to the Northwest Territories. We have the resources here. That’s the thing I take issue with. I think we need to find a way and means to keep...

With winter coming I think it’s very important. I want to get a commitment today from the Minister that the government will engage the Competition Bureau of Canada to have a look at the price fixing that’s obviously going on here in Yellowknife and perhaps in other market communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA, who is also the Minister responsible for consumer protection in the Northwest Territories.

I’ve been receiving a number of calls and complaints from residents about fuel pricing here in Yellowknife. I’m having trouble helping them or explaining to them how pricing is arrived at here in Yellowknife. I can’t explain it. World oil prices go down; prices in southern Canada go down corresponding to those world oil prices — in some cases just recently 12 to 15 cents a litre. But here in Yellowknife it takes a week or ten days...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use my Member’s statement today to continue to talk about the cost of living here in the Northwest Territories. Yesterday I spoke about how offside the government is with their proposed tax initiatives and how by even discussing increasing the cost of living they are scaring residents and potential residents away.

Last winter I heard from many residents who were having a difficult time paying their home heating fuel bills, and now this winter it is going to be 25 per cent more than last winter. I really am worried that coupled with the proposed 19 per cent rate...

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance.

It was a year ago today that Members were elected to the 16th Legislative Assembly, and shortly thereafter we got together as a group of 19 MLAs and went through a strategic planning exercise where we tried to map out a strategy for the next four years.

One of the main concerns during that meeting was the cost of living and how the government spent its money. Many Members, I remember, were asking for a zero based review and program evaluations, and here we are a year later. Earlier the government had committed to a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think the Minister is correct in what he’s saying, but I just have to say what we saw last budget session. That happened because of haphazard cost cutting measures government-wide. There was no rhyme or reason to what happened in February.

I’m saying something needs to happen so that level of analysis, the detailed information, does take place so we can all make decisions collectively. I just didn’t see that happening. When you just hand it over to your DMs and tell them to cut $6 million in this department, $7 million in that department, you’re just going to...

I think it’s creative things like that that we need to look at. We need to be attracting people here, and we need to be competitive. So we need to be looking at everything.

One of the things I was hoping to ask the Minister today, and I think he’s heard it loud and clear…. There’s no appetite, whether in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Smith or Hay River for that matter, for tax increases that are going to add to the cost of living here in the Northwest Territories. There’s absolutely no appetite for it. It’s already expensive enough to live here.

I’m wondering if the Minister could commit to taking...

I know the Finance Minister is new to that role, but he’s been here for a number of years.

You know, given the fact that we don’t have a resource deal with Ottawa, devolution is slowed down, has the government got a direction in terms of equity investment in resource extraction areas in our territory? Are we going to go there? Because in terms of finding new revenue sources, I think we need to start investing our money where we can make some money. So I’d like to ask the Minister that.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud the government, actually, in looking at the formation of this policy review shop that they’re going to have. But I think given the fact that it’s inside government, it’s going to be bureaucratic, it’s going to be slow, and it’s going to be cumbersome. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister if the government has any plans to get some outside help to come in to analyze government spending and do zero based reviews. It doesn’t have to happen government-wide, but if we could do a department or two a year and try to get a handle on where our money is going, where it’s being...