Mr. Nerysoo.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I am prepared to do that.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Pudlat.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people of Lake Harbour have been asking to the Department of MACA to priorize the arena in Lake Harbour. Would the Minister of MACA reconsider priorizing the arena for Lake Harbour, although it is in the budget for 1996-97? Would the Minister indicate his thoughts in this area? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Allooloo.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am available to meet with the Member for Baffin South to discuss the arena and how the community can

contribute. In these projects the communities can contribute. This would allow the government to see if items such as these could be fast tracked. I would be available to discuss this with the Member at a private meeting. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, on reflection I am not entirely satisfied with the problems of the old and new generator at the power plant in Iqaluit. Mr. Speaker, when the Standing Committee on Agencies, Boards and Commissions visited Iqaluit early this month and heard from the Power Corporation president, we were told the long awaited new generator would be on-line the day we held the hearing. Today, it is over three weeks later, and I understand there are still problems with the new unit. Can I ask if the honourable Minister could be a little bit more detailed about what the problems are with the new unit which was supposed to be on-line some three weeks ago? What are the difficulties? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the power outage in Iqaluit, the problems began last fall with the failure of the two largest generator sets in that community. One failure related to a worn bearing and the other resulted from a faulty voltage regulator. The voltage regulator was repaired and the machine was restored to service, and several days later the same machine was taken out of service during the evening hours to replace the regulator. The repairs to the generator bearing took longer to address, as the Member has indicated. A special arrangement was made to have a manufacturer repair the bearing over the weekend in a plant in southern Ontario. The repaired bearing was then flown back to Iqaluit and the machine was restored to service.

While repairs were being made to the generators one of the stand-by gas turbines in Yellowknife was prepared for transport to Iqaluit. An aircraft was placed on alert for that purpose. There were numerous outages in the community due to the initial equipment failure and the subsequent rotating power supply until the first machine was back in service. There were then other minor outages related to the repair of the second unit. There were a number of commissioning problems. The power outage had occurred as a result of installing the new 3.3 megawatt generator. This set arrived in the fall to replace one of the older machines to provide additional capacity. Mr. Speaker, although every effort had been made to ensure this generator set was delivered on the first ship, it was in fact loaded on the last one which accounted for the delay.

Installation and commissioning of the new unit has been a priority. Unfortunately, the connection of this new unit to the existing system resulted in a number of problems which have caused those power interruptions. Given the distress experienced by the community and the need to quickly resolve the problems, Mr. Speaker, the director of engineering and a technician proceeded to Iqaluit to direct matters for an eight day period. A Caterpillar representative was also on site during this period. At the end of that time, the power supply was believed to be stable. No further difficulties were anticipated. On February 23, 1993, during noon hour, a fault on the system caused a new 3.3 megawatt Caterpillar generator and one other to shut down. Power was restored within 25 minutes but later that day a similar occurrence during the dinner hour caused a further interruption which resulted in two outages lasting a total of one hour and fifty minutes. Mr. Speaker, both interruptions are under investigation. To limit the opportunity for a recurrence of the recent problems the director of operations, the maintenance manager, a government expert from Woodward Governors and an electrical specialist from J Keane and Associates are travelling to Iqaluit to identify and resolve any outstanding problems. The two staff members are scheduled out on today's aircraft, Friday, February 26, 1993, and they will be joining the others in Iqaluit on Monday. It is expected that this action will result in a resolution of the concerns.

Mr. Speaker, everything is being done. At this point in time, all possibilities of what might have happened are being investigated and people will be on site until the specific areas of fault have been identified and corrected. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

I thank the Minister for the helpful information, Mr. Speaker. I am grateful for the attention which is being paid to this problem because it is causing some anxiety to my constituents. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister provide this House with a report once the analysis is completed of the causes of these problems? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, I will do so. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, I have not had an opportunity to conduct a review of the fire safety performance. I want to assure this House, as I did when I was on the other side, I think it is important that the current standards continue and that we will press for even more increased standards. I want to assure the Member this is the intent of this Ministry.

Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will look into this matter. I suspect the increase in inspections is due in part to the former Minister's direction given to the department and I would like to commend him for it.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Ningark.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Renewable Resources. We all know the price for fox pelts are increasing. Hunters' and trappers' hunting has slowed down. Can the Minister indicate whether the prices are increasing?