Mr. Speaker, this is all happening very quickly. We had the letters drafted and they are ready to go to the MLAs. I certainly am considering doing broader public advertising to let people know that this opportunity exists. I have not gotten any specific plans on that yet. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to probe this a bit more. Once a new board of directors is in place, what would the first instruction be from the Minister to that new board? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I suppose at the first meeting when I meet with the new board, then I would want to review the strategic direction with them to make sure that is understood by the members. Second, there is certainly a necessity to review this whole current situation so it is fully understood as well as the government's position that has been relayed to them and the progress that is made on the energy strategy and so on.

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. Delorey, asked about the status of the energy strategy. I would like to see if I could get a bit more clarity on just how that will be distributed to the general public. Will there be a broad opportunity for input and response to the energy strategy, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the direction. Both the Minister and the Premier have signalled the significance and importance of the energy strategy to the future of the Power Corporation and the point of my question, Mr. Speaker, was to see to what extent we will all be able to participate in offering that advice. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the energy strategy is within the responsibility of the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. I do not want to speak for him, but I am sure there is going to be a lot of opportunity to debate the energy strategy before it is finalized. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of the Power Corporation. It has to do with communications again, Mr. Speaker. This time I am concerned with communications with Members. Earlier today, the Minister took as notice a question I asked about advice given to the Power Corporation a year ago, and then later on today, he confirmed that advice was given, that the Power Corporation a year ago was told to pursue the one-rate zone.

Members were never told about this. In June, Members were told that the Power Corporation was going to file community-based rates. The Minister was present and did not counter that. In fact, at the meeting, he said he was going to have to work with Cabinet and Members to get such a proposal approved to go forward.

When was the Minister going to stop treating the Members like mushrooms and actually tell us this was something the government was working on?

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, going back to October 2002, there was direction to the Power Corporation and direction to me to work on the recommendations in the Robertson report and take that to public consultation. Included in those recommendations was the recommendation with regard to a single-rate zone.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the lack of clarity is. It was in October 2002 that Cabinet gave that direction. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister said 2002, but I am assuming that he meant October 2001 in his response. Why were Members never told in October that this was the process that Cabinet had adopted, and why in June did he allow Members to be told that the application was going to be going forward based on community-based rates?

Mr. Speaker, yes, I stand corrected. It was October 2001, not this current year. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier in answer to another Member's questions, the Power Corporation and the government looked at the recommendations in the Robertson report. They did a lot of work. A lot of work was done on the one-rate zone.

By June, the government had concluded that we just could not come up with a formula that would work. There was no decision at that point of, was it going to be a community-based rate application, a two-rate zone application, was it going to be one, what was it going to be? That decision is not my decision to make. That is the Power Corporation's decision to make out what application they are going to put forward. Were they going to put forward a community-based zone in June? If that is what they said, then I assume that is what their intention was at that time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question has to do with communications between the Minister and Regular Members. The Minister in June told Regular Members that it would be necessary to get approval from Cabinet and Regular Members before a one-rate zone application could be advanced. We were led to believe that a certain process would take place and then we found out in August that it was not happening that way. Why was the Minister not telling us the process that was going to be followed?

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, at the meeting in June, and I do not have the record here with me, but as I recall, there was discussion on the progress that was being made on the Robertson report and all the recommendations on it and where we were.

In order to include a recommendation that was going to carry through for the government on a one-rate zone or a community zone or two zones or whatever it may be, yes, I would have to have Cabinet approval to do that. That is a different matter. The response to the Robertson report is a different matter to what the Power Corporation does in filing an application before the PUB.

In spite of what our recommendations are, that does not tie the hands entirely of the Power Corporation board. They have the authority under the act to file an application. Thank you.