Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not familiar with this specific case the Member is referring to, but normally, I believe that after two or three months, an individual would become eligible again for income support, providing that there were no outstanding debts. That is usually, in my experience, sometimes a difficulty, that individuals cannot come back on to income support because of debts owing, either to ourselves or to another government department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the program for social assistance, social housing, income support through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, are the programs administered the same throughout the Territory, or are there different programs for different areas in the Territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it is consistent, to the best of my understanding, throughout the Territory. The rules and regulations are applied in the same fashion throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Service, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was a decision of the government that we suspend any discussions on privatization with interested parties until 2003. This was based on the fact that there was some confusion as to how long the process would be going on before we could actually deal with the proposals. The department was still under a limit from FMB and Cabinet that we could not accept any of these proposals until the power review was over and done with, because there was a suggestion that power and fuel would be combined. We could not deal with any other proposals until that was decided. So everything was on hold, in a way.

Although we could accept proposals, we could not deal with them. To remove this cloud and allow people in the department some assurance that the system is going to remain as the status quo, including our employees, we decided to suspend any negotiations with proposals.

Now, in this particular one with Fort McPherson, Mr. Speaker, we did not see it as a problem with the Fort McPherson Band, because although they were in my office some time in March and did indicate that they had an agreement with the co-op to take on the fuel oil services in McPherson, they followed with a letter to us in April saying that negotiations with the co-op had broken off, so therefore there was no longer a proposal. We did not see it as interfering with anything that was ongoing at the time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the whole idea of privatization and the policies of this government are still there. Just because an initiative comes along we change our minds and say "Well, the rules do not apply." Rules that are already on the books and exist regarding the submission of proposals to look at privatization and negotiated contracts. It seems like this government changes the rules every time you have a report come out.

I would like to ask the Minister exactly when will the final decision be made on the consideration of the power review to see if the possibility of privatization of fuel products to the private sector is on, or is it totally in the whim of the Power Corporation to now take over all fuel delivery and power distribution in our communities? Has that decision been made, and when will it be made?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Service, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the letter that the Member is referring to indicates, it states, "it was the further decision and no commercialization of the Petroleum Product Revolving Fund will be considered prior to April 1, 2003." Mr. Speaker, my department does not deal with the power review. What we have done in responding to wishes of Cabinet and FMB is that we have suspended any discussions on privatization from this point on until April 1, 2003.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of corporations and companies in the small communities who depend on these types of opportunities have put a lot of work and effort into developing their proposals and getting them in as part of their business plans. A lot of them depend on this type of business to maintain their business.

We are now competing against the private sector in a lot of small communities. Again, I would like to ask the Minister, what are you doing to ensure that these companies that are now hanging out there as to where they are going to go with their businesses and find themselves having to declare bankruptcy because of some decision that this government made without even consulting them or even myself as Member? This is the first I have heard of it, yet it is something I have been working on since the 13th Assembly.

I would like to ask the Minister again, exactly what are you doing to compensate or assist those people who have made the effort to put these proposals in, the time and effort that has been spent putting a lot of dollars into developing these proposals? Will you consider compensating those people who have submitted proposals?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Service, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department did refer in the letter that we are fully aware of the costs associated with developing these proposals. We also have indications from some of the groups that they would not go any further towards developing proposals unless there was some assurance that NTPC was out of the picture. We could not give them that assurance.

Therefore, we assumed that we were not going to get any more proposals from these people, so there were no more associated costs. However, at the same time we are aware that we received a number of different proposals, for instance from McPherson. At one point Gruben's Transport put a proposal to supply POL to Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic. This was supported by the groups. The next thing we know, the support is withdrawn.

These types of changes have been going on and on. At one point the band itself was going to take it on and support was withdrawn for that as well. So there have been so many changes that we had nothing to do with. It was simply local politics that decided it. I am in no position to guarantee any way of refunding these people for the costs associated with their proposals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister state outright in plain English, are there no more negotiations for privatization of POL to the private sector at this time?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Service, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is what the letter indicated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address my question to the Minister of Transportation, and it follows up on the question asked by Mr. Bell earlier today. I believe in one of the responses to Mr. Bell I heard the Minister say that he believed that industry would go with the truck that would best suit the load.

Mr. Speaker, that seems to assume that trucking firms have trucks of all sorts sitting around. I can assure the Minister that at $160,000 a crack, that is not the case. I have been assured of that by members of the trucking industry. I think it is very important that members of the public know what it is going to cost to transport goods to their community.

I would like to then ask the Minister, why can we not use weight to determine the amount of toll that is paid on a vehicle? Why, rather than axles, do we not just weigh the vehicles at the weigh scales when they come into the Territories and calculate the tolls based on the weight of the vehicles? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.