Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll be very brief. I thank my colleagues to speak their minds in terms of this motion. Mr. Speaker, as I said before, I come from a community that has a high cost of living to the people there. Mr. Speaker, the community that we recently visited, as Mr. Lafferty indicated, was Colville Lake and we talked about some of their costs in that small community and the generator there that powers the community and their power bills being $2.66.6 cents a kilowatt and their store in Colville Lake also has a huge power increase.

Mr. Speaker, the question I had for my people in Colville Lake is why is a small community as this, the numbers and the high rate and they don't seem to understand the high cost of paying power and coming into Yellowknife where they pay in cents. If you go down to Fort Smith, they're paying I think 11 or 12 cents a kilowatt and the smaller communities have to pay more. It doesn't seem fair for them, the overall picture. No matter how you explain to them it just doesn't seem fair that they're paying $2.66 a kilowatt, while in Yellowknife they're paying pennies for a kilowatt. Even if you do the Power Subsidy Program of the first 700, they're still paying more. That community is isolated; its way up in the barren lands; the winter road is only in there for three months; the houses are overcrowded; the appliances in their homes are old. Mr. Speaker, people in Colville Lake said when the power generator came into Colville Lake, it would have been nice to have had NCPC talk to us about power consumption. We never really understood the use of power. They were encouraged to have their own store, so they got the Co-op. Even in that, they say it's $10,000 a month power bill. No wonder the milk, the other things, are so high. You have to pay for it.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to know, hopefully through this review, how was the $700 picked in terms of a 700 kilowatt? Where did that rationale come from? Do the communities that are paying the high cost have input into this $700...I'm sorry, 700 kilowatts. I am sorry about this, Mr. Speaker. The motion speaks to adjusting the power rates and the power subsidy. That is something we have some control over. We are paying too much and not using enough of the kilowatts...obviously can't be used, sorry, in the wintertime in December, January and February to help them with their power here.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I wanted to make reference to an initiative in B.C. where they have this in-home metre reading so the communities can take the responsibility of their own power consumption. Our businesses could take ownership of the power consumption. Right now, this metre goes around and around. People don't really understand. I don't see anybody in our small communities going out and checking and saying we'd better slow down. There are so many numbers on there, they don't really understand it.

So they had some mechanism in their house and they could look at it and say it will come to 700 and take some responsibility. Right now, they are just blaming government and getting on us to increase the power subsidy or do something with the power, reduce the payments. Doing business in the North is expensive in the isolated communities where we rely on diesel.

Mr. Speaker, I heard earlier about the hydro. It makes us wonder. We will have a cost of living similar to the one down south here in the Northwest Territories. Then maybe I can start looking at hydro, mini hydro or look at the hydro in our areas. We are certainly not getting much help in our communities by this government here in terms of the power subsidy. I know they spend millions and millions and it just doesn't seem fair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In closing, I thank the Members for the debate. I look forward to the review. I look forward to seeing the communities receiving some type of stronger initiative in terms of power rates to cut down the cost of living in the North. Thank you.