Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I need to raise the urgent concerns of the community of Aklavik. Gasoline and heating fuel prices are putting extreme pressures on my constituents. There are also potential power rate increases. Prices have increased by 35 percent. That means gas that cost $1.60 per litre in August now costs $1.90 per litre today, just one month later.

The people of Aklavik had no warning that this was going to happen. When Beaufort-Delta Petroleum took over fuel delivery, the company did not meet with the hamlet council. They didn’t let their clients know of a rate change in advance and rates weren’t increase gradually. The change was sudden and substantial.

In communities that depend on diesel, fuel prices already make up 47 percent in the retail for electricity, the largest cost component. In the GNWT’s response to the 2014 Energy Charrette, the government plans to improve their data on community fuel use and to use renewables to reduce our consumption, but urgent action is also needed here today.

This afternoon I will be tabling a petition, signed by Aklavik’s homeowners, hunters and trappers, community

government

representatives,

recreational vehicle users and many other residents. In the petition the people of Aklavik raise very serious and legitimate concerns about high costs of gasoline and heating fuel, and they support a call for proposals for a new distributor for fuel and gas products in Aklavik. The hamlet will be looking for companies that can provide fuel to the community at a more reasonable rate. I hope that the GNWT will support the community.

I will have questions for the Minister of Public Works and Services about next steps later today.