Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, at this point, a number of issues have already been investigated, so I will try to focus on those which, I think, haven’t had as much attention. I guess I want to start with the fact that use of the airport is non-optional for a big chunk of the Northwest Territories, because they have no other way to get to their communities on an everyday basis, or to get freight to their communities, or to have a medevac from their communities, or to go on medical travel from their communities. A question I will ask the Minister, at the appropriate time, is: how much of the money that is going to be paid out in the increased fees will actually be paid out by the government in all these different ways that they pay for airport use?
I will also be interested to hear some more detail on the Minister’s figure of how much the increased fees are going to increase the cost of living in Yellowknife, and whether that is just in Yellowknife, or whether it is through the Northwest Territories as a whole. Mr. Chair, this is a very economically slow time, here in Yellowknife in particular. We have had job losses on many fronts to do with our key employers: both the mining industry and the civil service. The result of that, along with increased costs in different directions, is people are feeling very vulnerable about the costs of living here.
This is not going to allay their fears in any way that they are going to be subject to an additional fee to leave the territory. This is going to increase their costs, and while that may be negligible, I think the psychological effect is more significant. I know my colleague from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh talked about tourism. My understanding is that tourism operators sell their products well in advance, and so they would not have had an opportunity to include this extra cost in prepaid tours, and the result could cost them literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of having to pay those airport fees out of their own pockets. This comes at a time where the committee heard compelling evidence that tourism thrives when flights are affordable, so making them more expensive doesn’t seem to be the right direction to go, in this particular case.
Making them more affordable will help us to encourage the growth of this fledgling industry, one which we have all agreed we want to see grow, and we want to take up a bigger portion of our economy. Making things more difficult for that sector doesn’t make a lot of sense. In the business community, we all know that the mining industry is a very influential player, and they have said, very clearly, that they are opposed to this fee, that it will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the flyover workforce that they have, and also for their general cost of business.
This is, again, hitting an industry that has already been very clear that it is feeling the pinch of lower-commodity prices, and so, as a result, lower profits. My bottom line here is that I can’t support the bill the way it is now. I think there are some very significant outstanding questions about attracting federal investments, about strengthening the governments, about a more considerate approach to phasing in the additional costs, at a time when the economy is more able to bear it. With that, thank you, and those are my remarks.