Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I too will be opposing this motion and I would agree with my colleague, Mr. Roland, that the Member has certainly led the charge on this issue quite fashionably for a long time, but I don't think that this is a decision that should be thrown to the Public Utilities Board or the Power Corporation. They came forward and they filed an application once already, I got told by politicians that they couldn't go forward, so until the politicians have a clear position, there is no point in trying to move this forward at the bureaucratic level. That means that we do have to have some kind of political discussion on this issue if we are ever going to consider it. But I think what really makes this a difficult issue even for politicians to have a significant discussion around, is that it is a matter of social policy right now, that this government says that electrical power is so important to people living in the North that we have to subsidize the cost of the first 700 kilowatt hours to the same rate as what everyone is paying in Yellowknife. That represents a significant amount of money that this government puts into a social policy. Unfortunately, neither the Power Corporation nor the Public Utilities Board can ever guarantee that that is always going to be there. That is something that a future Legislative Assembly is always going to have to vote on and determine whether or not the subsidy is there.
I am concerned that if we were to go to a one-rate zone, I think it takes away part of the argument for the subsidy. I think that in the future what you are liable to see is if we are all paying $0.21 a kilowatt hour or $0.23 a kilowatt hour, if the financial situation of the government worsens, then we might be hearing the Minister of Finance say well we can't afford this subsidy any longer and so the price of electricity is going to have to go up. Then if the smaller communities are crying about how expensive it is, then it is too easy to say well you are paying the same rate as everyone else in the Territories, so what's the difference?
As far as I am concerned, one of the strongest arguments for the social policy we have now is the difference in the rates of power between some communities. As long as you have that difference, then it has to be looked at or the government has to look at subsidizing the rates in order to make it affordable to live in some of its smaller communities, and I think that is the best way we can protect the subsidy in the long run. I oppose the motion for two reasons: The process is wrong, there has to be the political will for Members in this House before we provide direction for the Power Corporation or the Public Utilities Board to consider such an approach; and, I think even after that discussion, I will still oppose it because I think that if we are all paying the same rates for power, we quickly lose the argument for the government subsidy and I think everybody in the Northwest Territories will wind up paying an unaffordable rate for power. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.