It costs a lot to live in Yellowknife and it's only going to get worse come next July.
If people are having trouble affording housing now, the problem will be exacerbated when the GNWT's solution to the federally-mandated carbon tax comes into effect.
This despite the GNWT's assertion that the carbon tax will be mitigated by rebates to the point it could reduce the overall cost of living – for the average family of four.
"We did a lot of work trying to mitigate the impact that it's going to have across the Northwest Territories, GNWT Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod told a media conference on Wednesday. "As far as convincing people, they will have to see it to believe it."
A housing market report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows approximately 2,500 Yellowknifers cannot affordably secure any market housing option. And almost 30 per cent of residents had affordable housing in 2015, without the rent subsidy offered by the NWT Housing Corporation.
Buying housing in Yellowknife was three per cent more costly in 2017, because of higher priced units and there were half as many homes built compared to 2016.
The price of gasoline has increased 16.9 per cent in the past two months. And we learned this week each litre will cost 4.7 cents more when the carbon tax hits on July 1 next year. That tax will increase each year until 2022, when the carbon tax on gas will be 11.7 cents a litre.
Think about how the cost of lumber and building supplies will increase, since it's all trucked up here. That will almost certainly mean much more expensive new homes.
We must also take into account the Conference Board of Canada's prediction earlier this year that the economic future for the Northwest Territories is "grim." That is mostly due to the fact that peak diamond production has come and gone.
Those very diamond mines will face millions in additional costs – an estimated $9 million for the sector – which could have been a lot worse, but we still have to figure the extra expense into the companies' business plans.
In short, we're looking at some rough seas ahead. And the federal government's carbon tax could sink us.
The governing Liberal Party in Ottawa has to ask itself if it's serious about having viable communities in the North. We're working hard to make things feasible up here, but the reality is it's a completely different situation than in the south.
We're not asking for more handouts, just some serious tax breaks – much better than we have now. Sure, the Liberals in 2016 did increase the Northern Residents Tax Deduction to a maximum daily residency deduction to $22 from $16.50. It also increased cash to affordable housing, Nutrition North and climate change initiatives in that same budget.
However, it's clear we need much more help – on the social programming side for those of lesser means and hefty tax breaks for wage earners.
And now that the details of the carbon tax are known, it's clear that the needs of the North just weren't fully understood by the bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa – of they just don't care. We contribute such a minuscule amount of Canada's overall greenhouse emissions, couldn't we have been fully exempt from this onerous tax?
Why don't we hear more from NWT Liberal MP Michael McLeod on this issue? Is he fighting to ease our cost of living?
Just let us keep more of the money we earn and watch what we can do.