Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, often times, when one goes before the other, the types of mistakes that are made or the decisions that are made are not to the benefit of any given decision, and these learning experiences are good for everybody. It is difficult for me to answer because I have read a lot of articles that have been put out by others than the Power Corporation itself. My plan is to present, to this House, a comprehensive paper on many of those elements such as the questions that were raised earlier by the honourable Member for Kitikmeot.

First of all, there is a misunderstanding that the Yukon Power Corporation has been privatized. It has not been privatized. What has been done is to move the power corporation under the Yukon Energy Corporation which is all owned by the Yukon government. Yukon Energy then, which is owned by the Yukon government, owns the assets of the corporation, but their present arrangement is that they are contracted out to the Yukon Electrical Company, which is a company that is owned by Alberta Power. So the Yukon Energy Corporation, their power corporation, has contracted out the management of the electrical company or the power corporation to Alberta Power. So this is a present arrangement.

At the time of the transfer, the employees retained their salaries and their seniority, and the employees' pensions were transferred to a new private pension plan. The new pension plan was approved by the federal Treasury Board, and no funds were permitted to be transferred until the Treasury Board was satisfied that the new pension plan was, at least, equivalent to the public service superannuation plan. This has covered all the employees prior to transfer.

Like I said, the Yukon Energy Corporation really is a subsidiary company of the Yukon Development Corporation. I guess one of the things done when they put the power corporation under the Yukon Energy Corporation was that about $15 million to $20 million that the power corporation had made went into other economic development initiatives, such as, I think, the Watson Lake sawmill. So they were able to move the profits from the power corporation into other economic development opportunities. But the dollars that were used, plus the profits in excess of the loan payments made to pay off the YTG debt for the purchase of the assets, are annual dividends required to pay the power subsidy program. So they are doing a number of things, and they can move that around because it is under an energy corporation, unlike the Power Corporation, not being housed under any other development corporation.

So I guess one of the things that we would have to learn from that is whether we would want to move in that direction or not, or deal with exactly what is going to be done with the sale of the corporation, if it should happen, at that time. But I think there are a lot of questions that get raised out of this type of arrangement about whether it is good for us or not. I would hope that all the questions that have been raised in the general public and in the experiences of the Yukon would take into account where we take our next step. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I appreciate that detailed information about precisely what happened in Yukon. I guess I would like to ask the Minister, and I think the public needs to know what is being proposed by the Government of the Northwest Territories and the NWT Power Corporation. As I understand it, in Yukon, the government retained ownership of the power corporation through a holding company, the Yukon Energy Corporation, but it basically subcontracted the management of the electrical company to a private concern, and this, I think, has been described as privatization by the UNW. I would like to ask the Minister for the Power Corporation, if this model, where you would subcontract the management to a private company, is what is being proposed for the NWT Power Corporation? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, I believe that is one detail that really hasn't been taken into consideration or even really been discussed that much. At this point in time, according to the Abbott report, the Power Corporation is to stay intact. It already has all its employees who are situated in various communities.

In the Yukon, because Alberta Power is a very large institution -- I would say it is so large, you can call it an institution -- they really didn't have any need to build up some of the higher technical engineering capabilities that we have in Hay River. They would just import them from their more senior companies. Any area of expertise would just be drawn from a very large firm and brought into the Yukon.

At this point in time, we have the people who we require for planning. It is maybe not a large component, but for the day to day operations. What should be understood as well, is that in the Yukon, it is mainly a hydro energy corporation. There are very few communities on diesel. They have an ability, in a better way than we do, to have lower-cost power generation.

I know from discussions that Yukon Energy has to a certain degree, like the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, improved the level of service since the transfer. They have also invested quite a significant amount of dollars to improve the plants and also to install some new upgraded equipment. But, unlike the Northwest Territories Power Corporation -- and this relates to how a company operates -- the investment and new capital plan has been difficult for them because the cash flow and working capital has been depleted by using funds for other purposes. At this point in time, it's not anticipated that the employees or the work would be sub-contracted and neither, at this time, with the Abbot Report, would there be the flexibility to use the Power Corporation's profits within an energy corporation for purposes other than power generation. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Do I understand, Madam Speaker, that if the Yukon Power Corporation got into trouble, it was because the government had basically raided the profits from the corporation to put into ill-advised economic projects? Does that describe the situation in the Yukon? Thank you.

Mr. Patterson, I would ask you to rephrase your question. Your question is based on a hypothetical situation, as you said, "if the Yukon Power Corporation got into trouble." Can you somehow rephrase your question, stating that whether it got into trouble, or whether it did not get into trouble? The honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My understanding is that the Yukon electrical corporation, which inherited the assets of NCPC did get into financial difficulties. I understand from the Minister that money was taken from the profits of that corporation and put into various economic development ventures, such as a controversial sawmill in Watson Lake. Is that description of the situation, where profits were basically taken and used in ill-advised ways, describe what happened in the Yukon? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, I don't have the intelligence of the situation to determine whether their investments were ill-advised or not. I know that there was $15 to $20 million taken out of the corporation to redirect to other economic developments other than energy development. Some of these investments have not worked out. But the Yukon government made a conscious decision to put the Power Corporation under the umbrella of the Yukon Development Corporation which gave them the flexibility to make decisions about what to do with dollars that were available from the Power Corporation, if there were any available.

That was their decision. I believe that some of the issues surrounding that have been considered negative, and perhaps taking away from the proper development of energy resources in the Yukon Territory. I think that these events can only lead us to make better decisions about where we go from here. We can learn from mistakes and profit from good decisions. The issue is somewhat like what the honourable Member is outlining. There have been concerns about how they pay their dividends and the power subsidy program, which is somewhat less than ours, because they are somewhat short of cash.

These are all areas I think we can learn from. We haven't made those decisions or decided to go in that direction, but I think whatever we do, we should do things for the benefit of Northwest Territories residents. Thank you.