Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleagues have covered a number of good points. I was pleased to hear that the Minister has not dismissed the idea of an energy subsidy.
There may be issues to do with timing, but I would certainly hope that the government will pick up the challenge of addressing more comprehensive energy rebate programs for the cost of Northerners in that time.
I would like to make a point that, Mr. Speaker, in a number of programs, this government is already engaged in energy subsidies that are valued in the millions, and perhaps even in the tens of millions, of dollars a year. Reflect on the Power Support Program, on the Seniors' Fuel Subsidy, on income support clients who, through housing assistance, receive an indirect subsidy for their energy costs. A number of communities are benefiting through the petroleum products division, also indirectly from the provision of government supported infrastructure for their fuel systems.
Our point here, Mr. Speaker, is that a belief that if we took these individual pockets where this government is already engaged in energy related support, we would already have a very substantive core fund that could be used on a more universal basis, as my colleague Mr. Dent said, to provide an even greater assistance and incentive for businesses to set up.
Those are the kinds of things that would be very progressive and it would go into a long-term program to not only assist with the high cost of energy, but stabilize over the long-term this essential part of our life up here in the North.
-- Applause