Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, will be supporting the bill. For the constituency I represent, in order to go anywhere, a good example is Aklavik or Tsiigehtchic, the majority of the time, you need to travel to Inuvik just to get groceries. That is probably, easy, $150, almost $200, return trip. That is for gasoline. That is usually once a week or once every two weeks you need to do that. Any time you want to go hunting, you are looking at $500 just for gasoline, maybe more. That is a rough estimate.
In my riding, compared to living in Yellowknife, you just go downtown, and you are at the grocery market. A good example is, where I live, it is the highest cost of living, let alone the highest cost of gasoline and fuel. For the people that I represent, to have them pay more, especially under the federal backstop, at least here, we are kind of limiting what we are trying to do. It really is a shame.
I know there is a climate crisis, but making our constituents in the highest cost of living areas pay more is really challenging because they have a 35 percent employment rate. Those who are unemployed have to pay more for fuel, gas. I know they do get a rebate for home fuel, but a lot of these rebates I'd like to see put more focus on small communities because I will tell you one thing. In my riding, there is not a lot of people who access these solar panels or everything that is available because they just don't have the capital to do that or expertise, people who put those in place. It is really challenging the further north you go. There needs to be more focus on that.
I believe this is the best plan we have moving forward. Who knows what will happen in the next federal election. There are plans to possibly take this out, depending on who gets in. Leave it at that. For now, I am willing to support this. Thanks.