Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was asked about the impact of the staff housing strategy on the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

When tenants of staff housing begin to pay for their own electricity on July 1, they will be paying the lower domestic rate rather than the government rate presently being charged.

The change in rate class will affect the Power Corporation in two ways:

- revenue collected from user-pay tenants will be reduced by about $1.2 million dollars on an annual basis. Because of the three-month delay in implementation, the impact for 1993-94 will be less than $1 million; and,

- tenants will qualify for the territorial power support program, which is funded by dividends paid by the corporation. Power support program costs are expected to increase by about a $1.1 million on an annual basis. Because of the three-month delay, the increase will be about $1 million.

Mr. Speaker, the annual reduction in revenue is a very small portion of the corporation's total revenue from electricity sales, which is expected to be $96.9 million for 1993-94 - even with user-pay in effect.

During the past year, oil prices have stabilized, inflation has declined and the corporation has significantly reduced its operating costs. As a result, any increase associated with user-pay will be largely off-set by these cost reductions.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, it is impossible to predict how long oil prices will remain stable. However, I can assure you that any increases in rates by the Power Corporation - for whatever reason - are subject to approval by the Public Utilities Board.

Mr. Speaker, during our deliberation on the new staff housing strategy, calculations across all departments were made on the impact. Rather than have individual Ministers attempt to put forward individual submissions, I have asked the Minister of Finance to provide to the Members a comprehensive paper on all impacts and figures that we have available. Thank you.