Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about an issue that affects our constituents' right in their pocketbooks. Mr. Speaker, the cost of getting electricity pumped into people's houses has continued to grow throughout the Territories and I refer specifically to my constituency. Mr. Speaker, just over the Christmas break and into the new year, I was contacted by a number of concerned constituents and businesses in the community about the increased power bills they were starting to receive. There was a short fall rate rider that showed up on their bills plus a demand charge that was there and bumped the power cost significantly in my constituency. I raised this issue with the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation and I have to thank him for getting back to me with some information.

Mr. Speaker, I am still concerned with the increased cost of power in my community. For example, right now for residential use in Inuvik, 38 cents per kilowatt hour and on top of that, the monthly service charge and if you're a general user, there is another demand charge. Mr. Speaker, when the community of Inuvik switched over its generators to gas turbines, there was talk of saving money because the big cost of providing for fuel for those generators would drop significantly from that of the bunker C fuel they were using prior. Mr. Speaker, we were told at that time that there would probably be no reduction in cost because we had to pay for the cost of replacing the old generators with the new ones. Mr. Speaker, in the information provided it says, through those gas turbines, we've probably lowered the cost of service in Inuvik by 15 percent.

So, Mr. Speaker, even though we were told we are saving money and it is costing less to generate that power, residents of Inuvik are finding they are having to pay more for the same service. So, I will be asking the Minister which is it? Are we

actually saving money and, if so, why isn't that being passed on to the customers? Thank you.

---Applause