Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this motion deserves some discussion to help the public and observers here in the Assembly put this in some context. The power support program is a government program. It really has nothing to do with the actions or the decisions of the NWT Power Corporation or other power providers in the NWT. It is the government's choice and has been for many years now, I think since the early 1980s, to assist those communities where power costs are extraordinarily high and it uses the Yellowknife base rate as a threshold. So if you're living in a community where the cost per kilowatt hour is higher than Yellowknife's rate, the government will subsidize the difference for the first 700 kilowatt hours in your house, or if you have a small business I think it's to 1000 kilowatt hours a month. So this is, I think, a reasonable and a realistic way. There may be better ways, of course, but right now this isn't a bad way, Madam Chair, of assisting customers with the very high cost of electrical energy.
However, the rate at which this program is expanding is of considerable concern to myself and I think this is what prompted the committee motion Mr. Allen just read a few minutes ago. We are looking at a difference of 30 percent in two years in the cost of this program. This is not because the government has changed any of the criteria, but it is because power rates are going up more and more as communities grow and customer numbers grow in the NWT, more people are eligible. We are all using a lot more electricity these days. So these seem to be the drivers. What we have to do, I believe, Madam Chair, is to find ways to stabilize or put some curb on the extremely high rate at which this program is growing. We're looking at total expenditures now of $8.3 million a year. As I said earlier, that's a 30 percent growth in two years. We cannot afford to continue subsidizing this at this rate, Madam Chair. That is why we wanted to put this motion to government. I think rather than having a motion go forward to a vote and be approved with little discussion, I would like to put this to the Minister: We would like to have the government come back to us by the time the business plan review starts in the fall with options for ways in which we can stabilize the cost of this subsidy program. Will the Minister be able to do that? Thank you.