Nunavut fuel prices won’t go up, CGS minister says

Tom Sammurtok, minister of community and government services, said Oct. 21 there will be no fuel hikes this year. (FILE PHOTO)

Fuel prices in Nunavut will not increase this winter, Tom Sammurtok, the minister of Community and Government Services said in the Nunavut Legislative Assembly Oct. 21.

Sammurtok made the announcement during the first day of the second session of Nunavut’s fourth legislative assembly.

Sammurtok credited “operational efficiencies” and “cost-saving measures” implemented by his department for maintaining fuel prices at their current level, despite “increasing costs in maintaining and upgrading infrastructure and fuel distribution systems.”

This news will come as welcome relief to many Nunavummiut, who experienced an increase of 20 cents per litre on gasoline and 10 cents per litre on diesel at the beginning of 2014.

Homeowners in Nunavut were hit with a 7.1 per cent increase in all rate categories from Qulliq Energy Corp. earlier this year as well.

The Government of Nunavut announced a one-time $500 rebate to offset heating fuel hikes earlier this year, from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2014.

Keith Peterson, the GN’s finance minister, said in the legislature Oct. 21 that more than 1,200 Nunavut households benefitted from that rebate.

Peterson said the government has yet to decide whether to offer the program again this coming winter.

“I haven’t had discussions with my colleagues about continuing to offer the fuel rebate this year,” Peterson said. “We will review this and see if our fiscal parameters allow it.”

George Hickes, MLA for Iqaluit-Tasiluk, is hoping for a positive result.

“I can state from the feedback that I’ve gotten from a number of constituents that the amount that was allocated, was very greatly appreciated,” Hickes said.

The total pay-out, amounting to $600,000 “sounds like a lot of money, but in the overall government expenditures, it’s really not that much,” Hickes said.