Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My comments today will be on the ever-increasing price of having a phone. A telephone is one of those modern conveniences that is hard to live without. Where would each of us be if we did not have this method of communicating with each other?

Here in the north it is becoming increasingly expensive to have a telephone. In 1995, NorthwesTel was allowed to boost its basic access rate by $3 a month. Last year, that basic cost went up by $4 more a month. Now, we have received word that basic access will rise by $10 a month by August, 1999. That is a raise of $17 per month in the past four years, Mr. Speaker.

The phone company says it has no choice but to bill us for more basic access and local use because it is dropping its long distance rates, but those rates are still amongst the highest in the country. NorthwesTel's long distance revenues of $75 million in 1996 accounted for more than 60 percent of all the company's revenues.

There was talk about opening the northern market to competition by the CRTC, but the CRTC has pushed that back to July 1, 2000. While NorthwesTel says it is making all these changes in order to become more competitive, I am left wondering, competitive with whom? For the next 30 months, NorthwesTel will reap higher local rates, but remains a monopoly and that just does not seem fair.

For a lot of our citizens $17 more a month for a phone is a huge expense. These rate hikes should have been pegged directly to the opening up of the market to competition, which at least would have given consumers an alternative. We are all forced to pay substantially more for what should be regarded as an essential service. It may just become too expensive for many people to have a telephone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause