Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions again are to the government here and to the Minister responsible for Reducing the Cost of Living Initiative. I’ve read, very carefully, the public document the government has highlighted in terms of the priorities. I wanted to ask the Minister of this strategic initiative to reduce the cost of living if he can tell me what progress has been made in reducing the high consumer costs in our small communities in the short term.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable lead Minister for reducing the cost of living, the Honourable Sandy Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The work of this committee is strategic in nature. The government looks to make multi-year investments to reducing the cost of living in our communities in the long term by investing in our roads, investing in our airports and investing in our commercial power subsidy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Reducing the Cost of Living Strategic Initiative addresses the reality of the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. The actions of this initiative will aim to help manage the cost of living in the short term and alleviate some of the pressures of the cost of communities in the long term. Again, I ask the Minister, what is she doing in terms of any type of concrete plan? What is she doing to reduce the cost of living in the short term in our small, isolated communities? Where are the concrete plans in the short term?

I think the work of this committee, the government and the Legislature recognizes that in order to reduce the cost of living

in the communities, we need to reduce the cost of food, cost of bringing goods, cost of fuel, and so the investments in the roads and the commercial power rates and the airport runways are very, very important investments. In the immediate past, the government has -- and I believe the Minister of Public Works has announced that a number of times -- been able to reduce the fuel costs in communities by 16 cents per litre. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly the Minister is very correct in terms of the government’s response, in terms of the fuel, the gasoline costs and the heating fuel in our small communities to make it manageable. I am asking the Minister is she going to bring forward some concrete plans that would look at ways that they can immediately, in the short term, reduce the cost of living in terms of the pricing of our fuel. Mr. Premier has indicated through his speech yesterday in terms of electricity rates. I am looking at areas where people in our small communities can see the immediate benefit of lowering the cost of living in our small communities. Will the Minister bring some concrete plans forward?

I would be happy to, once again, come and meet with the committee to…We update the work of committee and where we are going forward with…Mr. Speaker, I think it should be recognized that under these difficult economic times, the budget that has been announced was written in a way that was mindful of the cost of living issues for our residents. We heard loud and clear during the revenue options discussions that our people would like our taxes to not go up, remain the same, and we have done our work to do that. We have reduced the cost of fuel where the fuel is being managed by POL. We will continue to look to make sure that in all that we do that we try to keep in mind that reducing and maintaining our cost of living low is one of the biggest priorities of our residents.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, again I would ask the Minister in terms of the strategic initiative points that are listed by the government here. They are addressing some of the factors of the impact of the cost of goods in the communities that had some discussions with the Minister of Transportation on the Food Mail Program. This is what I’m looking for in the immediate short term: concrete plans that this committee here can look at. What are some of the things that this Minister can bring forward in this House to reduce the cost of living in the short term that will have an impact on our communities? That is what I’m looking for. She is giving me some…

Mr. Speaker, the Food Mail Program is a federally run program. I understand that the program is under review by the federal government. The government is discussing that issue. I understand the Member would like to know if we are investing X number of dollars to reduce the cost of goods in the immediate future. What we are saying is the investments in infrastructure are a way, and a sure way, to reduce the cost of living in our communities for the long term. We continue to provide upwards of 160 to 170 million dollars subsidy in various programs to our seniors, in fuel subsidies, in all kinds of ways to keep maintaining a lower cost of living for our residents. There is more to do. We will continue to work on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I spoke in my statement about the Premier’s statement yesterday about energy and the fact that he has committed to establish a review of the NWT Power Corporation. He has also stated that he plans to appoint these people and hopefully he will have the names to us by about the middle of March. Assuming that that schedule remains the same, I would like to know from the Premier when we could expect that this review will get started. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once we have the group appointed, a panel appointed for the review, I am hoping that they can get underway and do the work as soon as possible and that we would be able to report to Members how that work is ongoing. Thank you.

Thanks to the Premier for his response. It may be a little bit early at this point to expect that terms of reference have been determined, but I would like to ask the Premier whether that is in fact the case. If they have been written already, I would like to know from the Premier whether or not they can be shared with Members. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the terms of reference are being worked on. As I have committed, I would be prepared to sit down with Members and go through those as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier. I will look forward to those terms of reference with bated

breath. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. I would like to also know, once this review gets underway -- which is hopefully going to be in another month or so -- how long the Premier is looking at this taking and when we can expect results. Thank you.

With the intention of going to committee with the terms of reference, looking at that and getting some feedback, that will help us and come up with some timelines. I am unable to commit to that at this point, but would work with Members as we firm up the terms of reference and have the appointments made and be able to get back to Members with a timeline. We are hoping to make this happen sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Premier. I am glad we are on the same page with sooner rather than later. That is a good thing. I guess I would be happy to hear a guess from the Premier whether we are talking one month, six months or six years, but I understand we can’t do that. Assuming that these results are done and that it is before the end of, say, 2009, will those results be shared with Members and with the general public? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the work we would do through that review and recommendations that would come out of it, definitely we would be working with committee on those and providing that to Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to continue on with my question to the Minister of the strategic initiative to reduce the cost of living. Mr. Speaker, what I want is what does it cost to live in Deline compared to live in Yellowknife? The average weekly cost of food for four in Yellowknife is $235. In Deline the same basket of food costs $442, almost double. That is what I am asking the Minister in terms of short term, immediate concrete plans. What can we tell the people in the Sahtu that pay almost double for food for the same basket? What immediate plans can we see in terms of looking at the cost of living?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister for the committee to reduce the cost of living, Minister Sandy Lee.