SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - NWT Premier Floyd Roland and fellow territorial premiers have called on the federal government to eliminate the federal goods and services tax (GST) on fuel for home heating, power generation and the transportation of "essential goods."

Closing their yearly Northern premiers conference Saturday, territorial premiers Roland, Dennis Fentie of Yukon and Paul Okalik of Nunavut stated that increasing energy costs are making the overall cost of living in the North "too high," and highlighted the need for alternatives to heating oil, diesel and gasoline.

The premiers also announced they are opposed to the federal Liberal proposal to impose an additional carbon tax on fossil fuels.

Ever-increasing fuel costs are raising the cost of living and doing business in the North as never before, Roland said. Existing taxes, not to mention any proposed tax hikes on fuel, are out of the question if the North is to remain a viable place to live, the premiers agreed.

Working to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions is a worthy cause, the territorial leaders said, but applying taxes to fuel costs is not a workable solution in the North, where communities rely on fossil fuels more than the rest of the country and the cost of living is already too high.

Premier Fentie said their stance against fuel taxes at large is in keeping with basic Northern policy-making, which maintains that the territories should be able to deliver a level of services comparable to the rest of Canada "based on a comparable level of taxation."

The premiers spoke in favour of hydroelectricity, wind power and biomass in the form of wood pellets.

"That's where we feel the effort should be put, and not with the employment of the tax system," Roland said.

However, outside of existing hydroelectric projects that could be expanded to provide electricity to mines and communities - like the Taltson hydro initiative in the NWT - the premiers could not point to specific new projects that would decrease dependence on oil in their territories.