Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. In my Member's statement, I stated that water is the life-blood for the Northwest Territories, especially in the West with the river systems. There is a significant diminishment. In fact, by some standards, it would be considered huge. One of the first things that comes to mind is power. Could the Minister indicate the effect of such a loss of water resources and water levels on the Power Corporation and the anticipation of the loss of those resources? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have, particularly in the area served by the Snare hydro system, seen the effects of increased loss of water. We are hopeful that this is just a cyclic type of event and that it isn't necessarily an ongoing problem. To date, there hasn't been a similar problem in the Taltson system. As I said earlier when asked by the Member for Yellowknife Centre about the low-water issue for the Snare system, we won't know until the end of June exactly what the results of the run-off have been. The amount of moisture that was in the snow that fell over the winter was, on average, the same as what we have seen in the past 18 years. So the amount of moisture that came down over the winter was about average. It will now remain to be seen how much of that winds up in the reservoirs.

There have been occasions in the past number of years, Mr. Speaker, where in spite of having a good snowfall over the winter, the evaporation has been so heavy that there has been very little of the moisture that winds up in the reservoirs. At this point in time, I don't foresee any change to rates as a result of low water. It is only in the Snare system so far that we have seen any indication of problems in the past. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister indicated that he hoped the low water was cyclical and there would be some sort of resurgence. Indications are that the water level has dropped over the last 30 years, due to the increase of evaporation and temperature increases. Is the Minister working on any kind of continency plans on the off chance or the high probability that, if that isn't cyclical, we have a trend that is going to go more of a linear approach?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in the Taltson system, we haven't noticed an effect at this point in time. In the Snare system, we went in 1991 from the highest water level on record to what we were faced with last year; the lowest water level on record. So it is too short a period of time to assess whether or not this is something that is ongoing. We will have to watch and see what happens over the next few years. In terms of a contingency plan, we don't have any plans to hire an aircraft to seed clouds, if that is what the Member is wondering about. We are going to wait for awhile to make sure this isn't just a cyclic occurrence.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Possibly the CANSOs, if they could fly that high, will be used to seed clouds if the Minister is looking for aircraft that are going to be available. My follow-up question to the Minister is will the northern basin study be reviewed by yourself and your officials, and the recommendations that are going to be contained therein, to see if there's any possible benefit to be gained from the millions of dollars that have been spent and the recommendations that are made? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is absolutely right, that a CANSO couldn't get high enough to do the cloud-seeding job. Yes, we are always going to watch the recommendations that come out from a body such as the one that's looking at our northern rivers. And, yes, we will take a look at the advice they provide and make sure that we are looking ahead for whatever the eventuality might be, as much as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question will be directed to the Minister of MACA. We've heard many things about the changes that are happening, and I would just like to know what the department is doing with the water/sewer subsidy. Thank you.