The area of energy is, as we hear in our communities, having a huge impact on the lives of individuals, holding people back from their potential. The cost of goods in our small stores in the communities is huge. I shared, for example, a trip to Paulatuk. One tomato in that Northern Store in Paulatuk was four dollars and some cents. I’m sure it would be similar in Lutselk’e. We see it, for example, when the ice crossings go out. The stores automatically bump up their prices, because the transportation costs are there.

One of the things we’re doing, that is ongoing, is, for example, the Territorial Power Support Program

— helping the cost of living that way. Ongoing on an annual basis for those families who are on income support or use it from time to time, the food basket is adjusted for cost of living and set-up — I believe if not by the community, then by a regional process. What we do have to look at, and there are other activities.... For example, within ITI, for those who go out hunting, we set up a fund that, once matched by the band or the hunters’ and trappers’ organization or the regional body, they can draw down that funding to help their constituents in that area. There are some dollars left in that for communities that haven’t drawn that down. That was one-time funding that’s stretched over quite a number of years since it was introduced. There’s some funding still left in there.