Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, am going to support the motion that's before us today. I would have preferred a joint committee between Regular Members on this side of the House and Cabinet to hash through some of these energy costs and the cost of living issues that are facing everybody in this House. I mean, it's going to be a huge issue. We've been lucky that the weather hasn't turned cold, and we've been lucky that people haven't got their first bill after having filled their oil tanks at home, because it's going to be a real shocker when they have to pay $1 a litre -- that's in Yellowknife; it's even worse outside of here -- when they have to fill those fuel tanks and they can't afford to buy groceries, Mr. Speaker.
That is the reality we are faced with here, and I know that it's important for us here, as legislators and as Members of this House, to show the public and our constituents that we care about what is going on. We care about the high cost of energy. We care about the cost of living increases. Every time somebody turns around here, Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is going up, the payroll tax, now we have the beverage containers, we have the gasoline, we have home heating fuel, and the list goes on and on. People's disposable income is going down with it, Mr. Speaker. I think it's very important that the government look at ways to put more money into people's pockets. To me, that's the most important thing.
As I've said before in this House, I've been here two years and the government hasn't really come up with any kind of idea, or championed any kind of cause, that would actually give people a break. I'm talking about the everyday people in our communities, the people that are working. I called them the working poor the other day, and that's exactly what they are, Mr. Speaker. They go to work from 9:00 to 5:00, they come home. Once they pay the bills, Mr. Speaker, they have nothing left. They have maybe $30 or $40 left a month in disposable income. It's just not right and I think we should try to look at every opportunity to try to put more money into people's pockets so that they can enjoy the lives that they have. You only go around once, Mr. Speaker, and we should afford people the little luxuries in life. I'd like to see what might become of this.
Members on this side of the House have talked numerous times about resource revenue sharing and the fact that we don't have it, and our fiscal situation remains very convoluted, very uneasy. We got an announcement yesterday that we're going to be $30 million short this year. That's going to impact us. We're going to be running on a deficit. Times are up and down all over the place, Mr. Speaker. We need some surety, and the government has to get that from Ottawa at some point in time. The government before this one and the government before that one, same issues, Mr. Speaker, and we have to try and get some closure on some of these big issues. I think in order for us to go anywhere, that is the bottom line.
The issue of not charging the GST on energy costs and fuel is a serious message that has to be sent to Ottawa. If you look at north of 60 just with the heating costs for people, the average temperature here is much less than it is in southern Canada. It's winter seven to nine months of the year, depending on which riding we represent. It's things like that that make us different. We're not a province yet and we need to be treated a bit differently. I don't think we get the respect and the dignity that we deserve in Ottawa. I challenge anybody to tell me differently, Mr. Speaker.
I've also talked about a trust fund that could roll out from resource revenue sharing, and we recently got $40 million, but already we're going to run out and give it out to the communities. Not that that's such a bad thing, but why we wouldn't start putting some of this money away for the future I'm not quite sure. It's things like that that are going to pay dividends down the road for the residents here in the Northwest Territories, and it should be seriously looked at.
Also, tax credits for interest paid on mortgages. Housing prices are up across the country. People are paying exorbitant amounts of money in interest on their mortgage, Mr. Speaker. Why we can't look at giving people a break on that interest portion that they pay on their mortgages? I don't understand why we don't pursue that.
It's issues for all of us. We certainly have to stand together here and make sure that we have a united front when it comes to the cost of living and energy costs. With any luck, energy costs will start to come down a little bit and ease the pain and burden on the households this winter because if they don't, we're all going to be feeling the impact of that because we're going to have constituents that, quite honestly, cannot afford to live here. We're going to lose people to southern Canada where it's not winter seven to nine months of the year and they can afford to live a little bit more. That's my big fear, Mr. Speaker, is that we are going to lose people. It would be a real shame if we do lose people and we haven't done all that we can to try to keep them here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause