Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak today about something funny going on at our gas pumps in Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, we know the rising price of gas has been on the national news because the prices keep going up and staying up. But what is an issue for a Yellowknife resident who called me last week is that the gas price went up by six cents per litre one day last week and there should be no reason to. Mr. Speaker, the ice bridge has been out for weeks. We know we have no permanent bridge over the Mackenzie River. This should tell us that the gas at the pumps has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My request is very narrow and it’s not anything to do with the POL; I’m asking the Minister of Finance, as a public interest question -- and he can refer it to the Minister responsible for consumer protection, if they have any -- but I’d like to know if the Minister would report back to the Members as soon as possible within this month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, none of that explains why the gas price went up by six cents in Yellowknife when we have no permanent bridge. There is no new supply coming in; it’s the same old stuff. I mean that explanation may work for southern communities, but we are cut off from the rest of the world because we have no bridge. They’re using the same stuff and the price went up and the only variable was that the prices were…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on my Member’s statement, I’d like to just ask the Minister of Finance what is his explanation for the gas prices in Yellowknife stations going from $1.19 to $1.25 when he knows that we have no bridge and unless they flew the gas in, which I don’t think they did, it’s the same stock. So if he could try his best to answer to start with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to say they surely have us where they want us. They know we can’t make our own gas. Conveniently, every gas station, no matter what name brand except for the Co-op, keeps the price high so there is not even really competition in gas pricing. As the news said, we can continue to suck it up, but I think we should all try to reduce the use of gas so that we could try to make an attempt to reduce demand, but that is not going to happen fast enough. The real action has to come from the government. We need to demand the federal government and all the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to take this opportunity to just go on record that all of my questions will be in the detail. A lot of general items have already been covered by lots of other Members. I will have some specific questions as we go through the supp. Thank you.

…it went up because it went up down south. So could I ask the Minister to make a commitment to review the prices of gas at the gas stations in Yellowknife over the last three weeks and provide us with the information from the industry as to why they raised those prices? Thank you.

…ever so conscientious, and we’ve done travels on this bill and others. You know, this bill is very interesting and it is trying to address the larger public interest goal of making access to legal services and legal counsel more available to those residents in the NWT who qualify for legal aid. I think everybody is aware of the shortage of lawyers not only here but everywhere in Canada, and we have heard over the years about the serious backlog in family law files and criminal files, which are the other…Probably the criminal don’t have as much of a waiting list as family files but, at any...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a final follow-up to that. I know that although we didn’t have a lot of people coming before us in the committee, this initiative has gone through public consultation in at least three communities. I have had lots of people come up and tell me that they would like to see this legislation passed as soon as possible. We do work here, but not everybody knows what we are doing here on a daily basis. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to doing some sort of public awareness, not a campaign but just a public service announcement, maybe a little 30-30...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to just state how important this legislation is really in terms of consumer protection. It is quite surprising that some of the provisions being provided in this bill were either not completed or inadequately addressed in the original Condominium Act. In Yellowknife, I have lived here for…This is my 29th year. In the last 15 years or so, lots of condominiums have gone up or existing dwellings or apartment buildings, but they could be just a collection of housing units or mobile homes have condominiumized. There was a lot happening once in the early...