Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I, too, rise today to express my concerns about the proposed water and sewer services subsidy policy. We were made aware of this proposed policy last week when the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs gave the Ordinary Members' Caucus a briefing on this issue.

Once we received the information, I immediately sent copies to the town of Inuvik's officials and asked for their opinion. Madam Speaker, to my surprise I found out that only on March 23, 1994 a joint letter from the deputy minister of MACA was sent to the mayor of Inuvik, the president of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and the chairman of the Inuvik Utilities Planning Committee. This letter included a copy of the amended water and sewage services subsidy policy. Madam Speaker, that was only about 13 days ago. Is this proper and timely consultation?

In Inuvik there's an active committee called the Inuvik Utilidor Planning Committee, and their task is to review and plan for the ongoing usage of the utilidor system in the town. As most of you are aware, almost all of the water and sewage services in Inuvik are piped through the utilidor system. Since they just received this correspondence, they have not had sufficient time to review the impact of these amendments.

Madam Speaker, a quick analysis was done on the new policy, and the water and sewage rates in Inuvik will increase dramatically. For example, we believe that rates to residential users will increase from $55 a month to $123.75 a month. This is an increase of over 125 per cent. We also have reason to believe, based on MACA's assumptions, that the costs to commercial users will more than double in three years. In fact, it could even triple.

Madam Speaker, I and my constituents find this totally unacceptable and would like the Minister and Cabinet to review these amendments before implementing a new policy. Mahsi.

---Applause