Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I first want to say thank you to the government for lowering the diesel prices in the Sahtu communities and other communities. When the Minister of Transportation and I did a tour in the Sahtu at the beginning of January, that was one of the issues that Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Norman Wells talked about, the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel. The Minister made a point of telling people in Fort Good Hope and Tulita that there are things in play that maybe could bring the costs down. So, true to his word, the Minister told the people that if things work out well, that the price of heating fuel would go down. Certainly, he has been true to his word by his statement this morning. So I want to thank the Minister, that something as important as this in our small communities means a lot to our people.
Ever since man has invented machinery that is fueled by diesel or gasoline, we have created dependency on it. From the Northwest Territories point of view, for myself, from wood-heated stoves to a furnace, we have moved in that evolution, from dog teams to skidoos to four by fours and trucks. We know that is a given that we have created some dependency on fossil fuels in the Northwest Territories.
Recently, we have seen in the news that the world prices have gone down and people in the Sahtu have been saying, how come our prices have not gone down in some of our communities? They want
to know why Yellowknife is paying $1.03 while Colville Lake pays $1.99 for gasoline. Why are those differences in the prices here? We wanted to raise that concern.
The other thing that the people wanted to know is will the price of gasoline go down in the Sahtu as it did with the heating fuel. Eighty-six percent of homes in Colville Lake are owned by private homeownership, so they definitely are going to benefit by the low cost of heating fuel in their community.
I will have more questions for the Minister on the price of fuel. Thank you.