Mr.
Speaker, indeed, the
landscape has changed and will change very significantly going forward. For a community like Hay River, which is close to the Alberta border, you don’t have to go very far south until you can tap into much more cost-effective business overhead. Just go to High Level, Alberta. There’s natural gas. There’s much, much cheaper power.
I don’t think we want to drive businesses that have invested in the North out of the North, and there’s some real merit in keeping them in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: if he thinks that $200,000 is such a small amount of money, or paying at a premium anyway, because the landscape has changed and we’re not the big players anymore.... If it’s only a $200,000 premium, why bother with such a small amount? Why make such a drastic change for northern businesses competing for a savings of $200,000?