We did look at dealing with Fort Simpson without disrupting the other communities. We looked at dealing with Fort Simpson that way and we looked at dealing with Hay River and Inuvik the same way, but we only had so much money so we tried to rationalize a whole water and sewage subsidy program in one, and then had to do some changes. We had a hard time wrestling with fairness and equity because what was perhaps fair in Fort Smith to businesses was not fair maybe in Resolute Bay or other places.

There is only so much that we felt that this government could subsidize and we wanted to equalize the subsidy to allow businesses the opportunity to recover some of their costs through rates. I don't think the increases are that bad that they will deter tourism or anything like that. Again, we went with the wisdom of the Cabinet. Instead of going with 50 per cent right away, we will only go ten per cent at a time to see the impacts. We want to minimize the impacts and hope they will be minimal before we move to the next ten per cent cut. I think, eventually, we'll be able to equalize.

We'll also encourage conservation because one of the worst abusers of water are hotels. When I travelled to Cape Dorset back in the early years, every place I went in the bathrooms there were little signs. I was scared to turn the water on because of the signs that said don't waste water, conserve. As soon as we came in with the policy, the showerheads were changed, they had bigger taps and people used more water, to the point of just about wasting it. We know, as a government that supports it, that it might cost the government more money. But I think by rationalizing the policy, we're shifting some responsibility to users, to municipalities and try to live within our means.