Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have stated in this House before, the people of my region see the hospital as providing an essential service. If anything, they believe the services provided by the hospital should be enhanced rather than reduced. Could the Minister advise me whether any decision has been reached concerning changes to the level of service presently being provided by the Fort Simpson Hospital?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, no decision has been made. There will be no decision made until the community has been consulted. The report has gone back to them, and further input has been received. No decision will be made without the input of the community.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A question for the Government Leader in her capacity as Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation. In April, the Government Leader told this House that a comprehensive study on the benefits of privatizing the Power Corporation would be initiated by the government. Could the Government Leader please inform this House of what steps have been taken to initiate this privatization study?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I will have to take that as notice because I do not know exactly what stage that is at today.

Mr. Dent.

Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not as well as I would like. On a daily basis, it is probably losing between $300 and $400, but when you factor in the capital costs, the start-up costs and the sunk costs, then we stand to lose in excess of three million dollars with the continuation of the exposition. Members will remember, Mr. Speaker, that at the time that report came forward, the projection was a minimum of $2.5 million for not proceeding because of contracts and other promises that had been made. So it is not performing as well as I would like.

I would point out that as much as the report mentioned that it maybe should be shut down after 30 days if it is not a positive cash flow, I did not adopt that position and said so in this House. I will be reporting to this House next week in more detail on the performance of the exposition to date.

Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been a couple of assessments done by Mr. Ward. He has sent them to my office. There are some logistical problems with the supply company that has the contract to supply all pavilions. I am fairly satisfied that almost everybody over there is having those kinds of difficulties. Mr. Ward is also concerned about the access to our portion of the pavilion. He is concerned about during the Imax performance not mentioning that we are part of that pavilion. He is concerned with the intense security that sometimes causes him problems. He is concerned with the fact that pulses through the Canadian pavilion are three and not four, which provides us with less business than we would have liked. He is concerned that the Spanish people, who are attending the fair at the present time, in the majority, do not have the disposable income that one would like to see in a visitor to that exposition, simply because we expect people who are on site to buy services and buy products.

There is a belief that when northern Europeans go on vacation, which is expected to start in the latter part of this month, Mr. Speaker, that business will increase because those people will have more disposable income.

I could go on with some other concerns, but I think we anticipated that it was going to be difficult to operate from this vast distance, and I am anxiously awaiting another assessment by Mr. Nerysoo; I understand that he is going to provide it to me in writing this week. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Pollard,

Mr. Speaker, I knew going in that we were not going to make a profit, so our intention was to try to break even. Mr. Speaker, we stood to lose some $2.5 million if we did not start the exposition, so I would be happy to maintain just a $2.5 million loss or less. Indications are, right now, that we are going to be short by another $500,000 or $600,000. I will provide more financial details to the House next week. Some of the verbal reports that have been provided by Mr. Nerysoo have already been put into place at the exposition right now. We have already decided that, having lost at least three or four staff members now, we will not be sending replacements over there. So there are some things taking place right now. Whether or not we will be able to suggest some drastic things next week, I do not know; but I will report back to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Oral questions. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister of Transportation. It is with regard to independent truckers in my area. They are hauling gravel right now for reconstruction of the roads in my constituency, but what they are getting per ton, or metric ton, is 10 cents, per kilometre for hauling. It used to be, Mr. Speaker, that truckers were given 14 cents for per metric ton. At the same time, they are asked to sustain local facilities and, at least on two occasions when I met with two truckers, they said that during the last summer's construction period, they lost between $10,000 to $30,000. So they have lost a substantial amount of money because they are not being paid enough to operate. So I would like to ask if the Minister has any plans to increase the amount for hauling a load of a metric ton from 10 cents to maybe higher. I believe it is 12 cents in Alberta.

Could we ask all Members to try to make their preamble as short and succinct as possible? Mr. Minister.

Oral questions. Mr. Arngna'naaq.