Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member's statement today was going to be on a different topic, but due to the building interest in the Fuel Subsidy Program, I thought I better make a few comments on behalf of the residents of Hay River. I must admit that whenever the government comes up with an initiative to put money back to the residents of the Northwest Territories, it is pretty hard to be negative about it. I want to compliment the Minister for realizing the fact that the cost of living is going up in the Territories and we do have to help our residents.

I do have some concerns, Mr. Speaker, about the way the subsidy is going to be administered and who is going to be receiving this subsidy. We have set a cutoff in the neighbourhood of $72,000 for Hay River residents. I have a real concern with that, Mr. Speaker, because $72,000 is at best a middle-income earner, especially when you are looking at a household. To make a household income of $72,000, if you are maintaining a home, paying the fuel bills, maybe paying for one or two kids and maintaining a vehicle, that is not a lot of money, Mr. Speaker.

They, as well as everyone else, have to pay the bills every month and they get hit very hard. As a matter of fact, this country is probably built on the backs of middle-income earners. Whenever a tax comes along, they are the ones who get hit the hardest. Whenever subsidies come along, they are the first ones to get cut out of the process.

We have learned a lot, Mr. Speaker, recently about subsidies from the federal government when they put out their fuel subsidy and the way they went about it. They instantly said, "We will use the GST to administer this subsidy." Well, lo and behold, it was a great theory. However, when it hit the public, it did nothing but negative things in the news because the wrong people were getting it.

Here we are going to put out a fuel subsidy. I think we are rushing into who is going to be getting this fuel subsidy and how it is going to be administered. I think we should take a little more time on this one and make sure that when we administer it, we are going to be doing the best we can do with this subsidy.

I learned yesterday, Mr. Speaker, that the fishermen are now going to be getting this subsidy, but there are some questions around how they are going to be getting it. I have some concerns....