Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Todd on June 17, on the status of franchise agreements.
On December 17, 1991, 1 indicated to this Assembly that there appeared to be a great deal of confusion over the purpose of franchise agreements, and that little progress had occurred to date to successfully conclude agreements between the corporation and communities in its service area.
Currently, the corporation has a request before the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board to authorize franchises between the corporation and each of the 10 unorganized communities. It is anticipated that this authorization will be provided shortly.
In addition, the Public Utilities Board has scheduled public hearings into the terms and conditions of the standard form franchise agreement for July 9-10, 1992, in Yellowknife. It is anticipated that these hearings will result in clarification of the requirements and parameters of an appropriate franchise agreement. These parameters will be communicated to all communities within the corporation's service area with a view to encouraging settlement of these franchise agreements. Thank you.