You are asking an opinion of the Minister. I think the Minister has answered on three occasions the question that has been asked in a slightly different way. I think that line of question is closed. Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Koe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Education. In November of 1992, a joint submission was prepared by the Beaufort/Delta board of education, the Inuvialuit social development program, the Gwich'in tribal council and Arctic College. This proposal was submitted to the Department of Education to establish a teacher education program in the Beaufort Delta region. As far as I know, they only received acknowledgement of this proposal a few weeks ago from the new Minister. What is the status of this proposal to establish a teacher education program in the Beaufort Delta region?

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to indicate to the honourable Member that the status is that we, as a department, supported the proposal. We have submitted it for funding, through the aboriginal language program funding, but we have not yet received indication as to whether it is going to be funded or not, other than to indicate Cabinet is supporting it as a priority.

Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Who is responsible for the aboriginal language funding?

Mr. Nerysoo.

Mr. Speaker, if I could clarify that particular matter, the actual responsible agent is through the Government Leader's office. However, I want to indicate to the honourable Member that all the submissions which have received approval and support require a meeting between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government to agree on the priorities and expenditure of the funding that has been allocated under the languages agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have supported the submission, now it is a matter of an agreement between the two parties.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Koe. New question, Mr. Pudluk. Mr. Patterson next.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, if the government's new long-term staff housing strategy is implemented July 1, 1993, some 1,800 staff housing units will change their status from government housing to a private residence and thereby subsidized rates for the purposes of billing power to each one of those units. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is, will this change of categories for these 1,800 or so units affect the revenues of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, yes.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

In preparing for this budget session I would expect, Mr. Speaker, that the Minister has calculated the impact of this revenue adjustment. Could the Minister provide this House with an estimate of what precisely this revenue change will be on the Power Corporation's revenues in the coming fiscal year?

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, we are not sure yet. It is impossible at this time to calculate. I can give an estimate, but mainly because we do not know how many people are going to take the offer and how many units will continue to be paid, such as nursing stations with various categories of houses. So, we have not done the precise calculations on exactly what the change of revenue would be. It is premature for me to make a guess right now. As you know, the staff housing policy has not been passed through the House. We have some calculations, but I am hesitant to make a guess or a presumption at this time. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the Minister is somewhat uncertain about the future of this staff housing strategy. I would respectfully suggest to the honourable Minister that there should be no doubt whether employees buy their houses or continue to live in them, as I understand the staff housing strategy as announced by Mr. Kakfwi on February 17 and detailed in his statement, all tenants will pay their own electrical bills as of July 1, 1993. I believe that will put them all on the residential power rate. I would ask the honourable Minister if she would undertake with that information based on that assumption, to inform this House precisely what the revenue impact will be from that change of category, and also whether the loss of revenue that I forecast to the Power Corporation will be passed on to consumers in the form of rate increases across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, certainly I can try to fine tune the calculations we have now and provide it to the honourable Member. As the Member knows, many of the units we have are very energy inefficient and we know we are going to be making some remedies to that because people will be in the position to demand much more response to upgrading of units because they will be paying their own way in those units. As well, we anticipate people will be more conscious of energy efficiency because they are going to be paying their own bills. There are a number of factors involved.

As for the second question, will we provide the statistics we have, yes, I am prepared to do that. Secondly, will the shortfall require a rate increase and will that be passed on to the consumers? Mr. Speaker, any rate increase that the Power Corporation advocates in seeking has to go through the Public Utilities Board which assesses whether there is a requirement for such. If there is a requirement for such, yes, that does get passed on to the consumer. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Zoe.

Mr. Morin.