MLAs voted unanimously on Oct. 17 to hold an emergency debate after Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart presented a motion on the cost of living crisis in the Sahtu. 

"To show the impact to our citizens of the Sahtu, say your standard fuel tank is 250 gallons, times 4.5 litres per gallon, times $5.50 SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” that's $6,200 to fill that
tank up," said Sahtu MLA Daniel McNeely. "What about your other living expenses? What about your utilities?

"We need solutions now SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” 30 below weather is coming. People are turning up their thermostats up already."

The community declared a state of emergency on Oct. 15 due to the skyrocketing price of fuel. Noting the $6.6 million of emergency funding that Norman Wells is asking for amounts to 0.3 per cent of the GNWT's total budget, Testart said people in the Northwest Territories are on a "knife edge."

"This is a humanitarian crisis, the magnitude we see after a hurricane," he said. "That anxiety is not going to be solved by finding someone to blame.

"We need to bail out this community. We don't need to overthink this. Let's cut a cheque and let's cut it today. We do not want to see another community destroyed by climate change. Maybe not physical, but the fabric, the social fabric of that community is under threat right now."

Great Slave MLA Kate Reid said Norman Wells is the "canary in the coal mine" in terms of rising costs in the NWT.

Julian Morse, Frame Lake MLA, noted that the crisis was the result of bad planning. He said he had worked on projects measuring the biomass fuel potential of the Mackenzie Valley, which is tremendous. Moving communities to biomass SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½”&²Ô²ú²õ±è;renewable organic materials such as wood products SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½”&²Ô²ú²õ±è;would build resiliency against fuel crises as well as create jobs.

"We saw this problem coming. We know there are solutions we can put in place," he said. "I think the situation that people of Norman Wells are in is simply untenable."

Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon-Armstrong said the solution is to build all-season roads to all NWT communities.

Shauna Morgan, Yellowknife North MLA, cautioned her colleagues in the legislature to be wary of Imperial Oil. She said the GNWT should take over fuel services for Norman Wells since the GNWT was able to provide fuel to its customers without issue while Imperial Oil did not.

"The way that we choose to respond now will set precedence," she said. "If we signal to a private company that's in monopoly position that this government has bottomless pockets to subsidize whatever is necessary, we are putting everyone in a very dangerous situation."

Deputy premier Caroline Wawzonek said climate change is creating a dire situation in the NWT, both on the balance sheet and with infrastructure. She credited the federal government for quickly responding to the GNWT's requests, but said she's calling on Ottawa to provide more cash to help the situation.

Wawzonek said the other Sahtu communities that the GNWT supplied should not be expecting a fuel cost increase and the GNWT has been in constant conversation with Imperial Oil, which included the cancellation of barge services to Sahtu communities.

She also said the senior home heating subsidy rates would be increasing and income assistance programs will be adjusted to cover home heating costs.

"It's not about blame, but there is some responsibility here," she said. "(We've) done everything to make sure we were supplying [what] we were responsible for and communicating with the contractors for the communities where we're not. We have to make sure we're using public dollars responsibly.

"We need to ask ourselves who am I going to give that cheque to? Is it going to be on an income threshold? Will it be different if someone hasn't used energy efficiency? Will it be different if someone has mitigated their costs? Do I provide cheques to companies that are going to continue to earn a profit on the sale of fuels, or do I find some other pathway that can ensure that people are heating their homes?

"We've put it to them [Imperial Oil] that this is a time to step up. As someone who's been in that community for 40 years drawing oil out, we need that oil to come back in."

Watch the debate below. It begins approximately 1:30:00 into the session: