Once again, we’re urging government to levelize our electricity rates in the North. Once again, we’re asking government that…. Electrical power’s an essential service. That’s something that none of our communities can get by without. We’ve got many, many remote
communities that operate on diesel-generated services and our community-rate-based structure. There’s no equity in that for our communities, Mr. Speaker. We’re expecting small communities such as Nahanni Butte, Colville Lake, Jean Marie to pay for the O&M and infrastructure of our power systems in those communities.
We cannot continue to allow that to happen. Any time one household attempts to save power by generating their own power or finding alternate means, that means everybody else has to pay. The way the structure’s set now, the Power Corp has to recover all O&M costs. As ridiculous as it may sound, if there’s only one household attached to that power-grid system, he’s paying for the whole operating and maintenance cost of that diesel system in that community, Mr.
Speaker. That’s
incredible. I don’t see how we’ve done it for so long, especially in this day and age. There’s just no room for that.
In my election campaign — in both of them — the one-rate power zone is still a priority in my communities. This motion, of course, speaks to levelizing the rates in the diesel communities, which I’ll certainly support. It’s one small step in making life a lot easier, one small step in making the cost of living a lot cheaper in our small and remote communities, which diesel generation affects. I certainly support it.
Over time we’ve always been finding that government has always said… It seems like that’s the only system they know, so they will continue doing it this way. We know through research and asking questions that all the jurisdictions in Canada operate on levelized rate zones.
Some of them maintain their one-way zones, like in Alberta. Northern Alberta doesn’t pay any less or any more than southern Alberta for their power rates. But in other communities — in other districts like Saskatchewan — the Northern communities do have a different rate zone. But it’s for the diesel communities and they all pay the same rates.
That’s something we should be gravitating toward. I’ve always believed that we’re government and we listen to the people, and if the people want levelized rate zones, then I believe that's the direction in which government should be moving.
We're governing the people, and we should be listening to them if the people want levelized rate zones. Not to mention that 30 cents per kilowatt-hour that my honourable colleague put out there. That goes a long way in stimulating and having more disposable income in the pockets of our people and our businesses that are out there suffering.
I too have many, many businesses in my communities that are struggling because of the
higher rate zones in our communities, as well as the riders that are there. The rate riders are there because costs are rising, but there again, it has a ripple effect. It means the costs are rising for our small businesses and our people as well.
But as government, we have a role to play. We have a role in helping our communities, our businesses and our people. Hopefully, the government will really consider this motion this time. We've done many in the past, and if nothing gets done, we're going to have many more to come.
Eventually, government is going to have to listen to the people and to Members from this side of the House. I've always said the government has to take the cotton balls out of their ears and put it in their mouths so they can really listen to what we and the people are saying.
With that, I am going to support this motion, and I urge other Members to support this motion, and I urge the government to listen. Mahsi.