Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Senator Gold, this Saturday, residents of Nunavut will pay significantly higher costs for gasoline and home heating fuel due to the federal government forcing the Government of Nunavut to no longer provide a direct subsidy in those fuels at the pump, a system put in place after the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change was implemented in 2016. But now, starting Saturday, the federal government has refused to allow that direct subsidy at the pumps to continue, and it threatened to impose the dreaded backstop, which would have returned carbon tax revenues from Nunavut to the federal government, despite pleas from the Government of Nunavut not to do that.

Senator Gold, my question is this: Why is the federal government now punishing Nunavut homeowners, drivers and hunters who already have the highest cost of living in the country and have been hard hit by inflationary price increases?