Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to say how completely disappointed I am with the performance of Minister Handley yesterday in answering to the questions of this House with respect to his responsibility, involvement and actions, or inaction, in his role as Minister responsible for the Power Corporation.
I do not intend to spend a lot of time on this issue after today, but I would like to summarize what I have heard to date. In October 2001 NTPC began work on a general rate application for a single rate zone, with or without the Minister's and Cabinet's blessing, and I am not sure which it was. In June 2002 Mr. Handley did tell Members that a single rate zone would be a hard sell to the hydro communities and he had no confidence he could get Cabinet approval, let alone support from the Members of this House, and that is assuming that we were going to be consulted at all.
At the same time the president of the Power Corporation informed Members that NTPC was proceeding to phase 2 of their application on the basis of community-based rates. Less than two months later, on August 6, Cabinet took the position that consultation on the new rate structure and several other issues should be deferred until after the energy strategy was complete. This strategic direction, as Mr. Handley has characterized it, was clear to him and made clear to the chairman of the Power Corporation.
One week later on August 13th, in the presentation to regular Members, Cabinet's position was clearly laid out in terms of the deferral of the discussion with Mr. Handley, the chairman and the president of the corporation present. Close to the end of that discussion Members were surprised with the announcement that NTPC was proceeding to file their application in the next few weeks based on a single-rate zone.
Rather than attempting to reconcile that information with what Members understood, Mr. Handley took the opportunity to share his personal views seemingly contradicting Cabinet's direction on the merits of a single rate zone. This timing left no opportunity for regular Members to be consulted, and after the filing of the application the public became increasingly confused with the Minister responsible speaking out publicly about his support for a single rate zone and another Minister using his weekly column in his local newspaper to speak against the flat rate and filing for intervenor status. It is little wonder that the Premier had to step in to clarify the situation.
There are so many things wrong with this picture. I could attempt today to reword the questions about key points that contributed to this situation. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.