Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; and in the past, the $390,000 roughly -- and it has been around the same for the last number of years -- was primarily targeted toward a freight subsidy. We did change the program, I think it's two or three years back now. I don't have this information in front of me, but if I remember, there are about four schedules. One of them is for capital upgrades, one of them is to support new entrants to the industry, freight subsidy is still in there, there's another schedule. If I recall, last year the federation had a small surplus in one of the schedules -- I hope I'm right on this -- I think they were allowed to transfer that into another schedule where there was a bit of a deficit. So we think there's adequate flexibility built in. We think the money is being spent each year. I agree that in the past, it probably wasn't if it was reliant on the freight, because if the quotas aren't being reached then that isn't of much use to the federation. So we think that the feedback has been fairly positive on this. There are issues about who decides who gets which money and these kinds of things, and we are using the federation to help us with the determination of that allocation. But there are some issues to work though. We think it's suitably flexible. We think the larger question and larger issue is the long-term viability of this industry, because I think, as the Member has pointed out, even with the subsidy, there are major challenges to this industry going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have one final question for the Minister and that is does the Department of RWED have within their possession anywhere some kind of an indication of if operating under optimum conditions with maximum capacity, what kind of an impact this industry could have on not just the economy of Hay River, but on the economy of the Northwest Territories? I think it would be good for us to fully understand what the potential of this is so that we have goals to work towards. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure that we have the comprehensive information that the Member speaks of. It would certainly be a good idea. I would agree with that. There are a number of variables in looking at this. Maybe one thing I should point out is, despite the challenges, this industry I think employs almost 150 people, both on boats and in processing. So it is not insignificant. It is important to our economy; the economy of the entire Territories. We recognize that. That is why we want to support it, but to understand the full potential of the industry would make sense. We know we are under quota. We know that that quota isn't excessive. We believe that if the quota were being caught every year, the fish stocks would still be sustainable. What kinds of ships would make the most sense? Potentially, what would make more sense is to have one or two or three boats on that lake and possibly it would be more economically viable in that manner, but there are a lot of concerns about people who have been established in this industry for a number of years. There are many questions going forward. I will certainly work with committee and with the Member to see if we can't do a little bit of research into the viability of the industry were it at full potential. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, the honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, a review of our hydro potential in the Northwest Territories has been ongoing since 2001-02. For a year and a half or so, the government funded the research of hydro potential ourselves. Then, later on, we funded those projects through the Energy Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the Power Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier didn't really answer the question that I had asked. If you have the Energy Corporation, the Power Corporation, RWED and ECE, where is the funding coming from? Can the Members on this side of the House and the public get a disclosure of where the funds are coming from? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, if the Member is referring to this year, the money is coming from the NWT Energy Corporation; that is a subsidiary of the Power Corporation. Mr. Speaker, there was for a while a loan guarantee of up to $300,000 to the Energy Corporation. That has since been cancelled, and the Power Corporation advised to take that into account as they do their revenue and expenditure statements for the year and pay us less on the dividend side, reduce the dividends to the government. So, Mr. Speaker, for this year from now on, many expenditures will likely be done this way. They will be accrued by the Energy Corporation, and the Energy Corporation will pay less in dividends to the government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope that answers the question.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just wondering, through you to the Premier, if I heard him correctly, the funding for the hydro projects is going to be channelled through the Energy Corporation. Does that mean that the Power Corporation, RWED and ECE won't be tapped for any other programs? As I mentioned earlier, the Auditor General's report clearly states that, because so many programs funded the Deton' Cho diamond company, we still have trouble today trying to find out where all the money came from. I don't want the same situation to occur with the hydro potential. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear that the direction to the Energy Corporation, which is partly owned by the Power Corporation, is that they will pay us as a government, as shareholders, fewer dividends. The dividends will be reduced by the amount that they invest to hydro projects. Mr. Speaker, that doesn't mean that the owners of the hydro project, assuming that these proceed, wouldn't also look to other programs for some assistance. Mr. Speaker, for example, with the Great Bear project, that one is proposed to be partly owned by the Power Corporation and partly by the Tulita and Deline land corporations. The Tulita and Deline land corporations could very well apply for training assistance, for example, or through some other program that RWED may offer, but they would do that as shareholders independent of the Power Corporation but part of the whole corporate structure. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks, Premier, for your response. I am just wondering if the Premier is aware of the Yukon experiment with power and running a line into Faro in the Yukon and the fact that ratepayers in the Yukon territory are indeed paying a 15 percent rider on their power bills today to continue to pay for that legacy of putting that power line into Faro. I am just wondering what steps the Premier might take here in the Northwest Territories to ensure that our hydro projects have a customer and aren't built without a customer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On any of these big projects, anywhere from two to five percent of the total project is often spent on the conceptual and pre-feasibility and feasibility stages before we even know if we have a viable commercial project. So we have to invest some money up front. I am, Mr. Speaker, very aware of the Faro situation and the risk that was taken by the Yukon Energy Corporation in building a power dam solely to that one mine. I should also remind the Member, as well, and other Members that we also have a different kind of story with the Pine Point mine where one was built. It went to one mine. It worked out very well. People south of the lake enjoy lower hydro rates. In the case of the Taltson project, Mr. Speaker, that one we are looking at. We are very aware that mines have a limited life, but we need to look at whether or not this will work. We don't know that yet. We have been talking with our partners. We have been talking with the mines that have all expressed interest in it. In this case, we are looking at mines with a limited life, but we are also looking at at least three mines and potentially four mines that would all be buying power from this one project if it were to move ahead. So those are all risks we have to take whenever we look at any business venture like this. There is no guarantee in it. Certainly, there will be a lot of discussion in this House assuming this project keeps moving on, before there would ever be a decision made.

Mr. Speaker, I might add, and I am sorry it is a long answer, but we have to do a fair bit of work up front before we could even go talk to customers. We do not want a project like the one in Newfoundland in Joey Smallwood as days where Newfoundland is still losing money as a result of a bad deal that they entered into before they had all the information that was necessary. Mr. Speaker, it is important to spend some money up front and make sure we got it right before we sign any contracts with customers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to ask some questions with regard to Student Financial Assistance to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Minister replied at length yesterday how SFA works. My concern is once a student is deemed to have not completed and is requested to return funds from a previous year or previous semester, how long is that student penalized, or, rather, deemed ineligible for SFA? Thank you very much.