First of all, on the comments the Member takes exception to, you would have to read two paragraphs together. As he indicated, I have probably met with a greater variety of organizations and people who have expressed varying degrees of interest. I believe the second paragraph, which reads: "The inability of the Assembly's Standing Committee on Agencies, Boards and Commissions to schedule hearings suggested it would not be possible to reach a territorial consensus on the concept of privatization..." is saying exactly what the Member has said.

The issue is, although the information was circulated, there wasn't really a total acceptance of any model. Certainly, in this House, dealing with privatization didn't have total consensus either. This is just to acknowledge that. It isn't to make a criticism of anyone. I think what the standing committee and I found is the same thing. It was a situation where people had different models and different ideas about how it should be done. It varied from individual communities who felt they could take it over on a regional level to one model where everything stayed together. It wasn't there to provide criticism, but to tie the two things together.

In terms of hiring and buying for the Power Corporation, a lot of equipment and what is needed is really not provided in the Northwest Territories. It is a specialty group that buys the types of equipment, power generating plants, et cetera, that aren't made in the Northwest Territories. And, I believe, it probably wouldn't be feasible or economically sound for someone to go into the business of selling the generators required and so on. A large part of what the corporation buys, which I've been tracking, are things that couldn't really go to a second agency housed in the Northwest Territories.

The Power Corporation does buy north and hire north. One of the first things, in terms of hire north, was to try to adjust the compensation paid to a lot of workers who were out in the interior carrying out duties and functions. We tried to stabilize that and look at that, making that real for the people who are doing the bulk of the work in the communities. I hope that we will be able to have people trained to take on some of the more complex jobs, particularly in the engineering area where it is difficult to get people who are qualified.

Given the new government's thrust for education, training and employment, we should try, as much as possible, to encourage people to take on those more complex jobs. Sometimes, it is just impossible to hire north because people are not available. But, I believe the corporation has done an excellent job of trying to meet those two mandates. They do have a policy governing their expenditures and also on hiring north. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.