Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the exercise we are going through now, we are trying to meet the next business planning process. So we are hoping to have some initial numbers or information for June and then finalizing things in September as we begin the business plan process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister. Does your department recognize the report done by Grant Thornton, produced I believe in December of 2000? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Executive and FMBS did commission that report, so that report was done for our benefit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister. Is your department looking at the recommendations and possibly implementing the recommendations by that and, if I may further, does your department recognize the previous motion made by Mr. Dent, seconded by Mr. Roland? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Apparently there was a previous decision by the Assembly. Mr. Minister, are you willing to respond to the Member's comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will respond to the question that in the report he has referred to that all of the recommendations in there would be part and parcel of our review and what areas we can go forward with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and again, thank you, Mr. Minister. Since I have come onboard four months ago, I have been a strong advocate for the GNWT to proceed in the public services model to open up the accountability process in a sense of non-partisan. Therefore, we can get true representation and a clear representation that we are implementing our public service policies in a fair manner. It has also been pointed out that maybe we are not digging deep into the recognition of the affirmative action policy and it not being represented or accurately being responded to as the desire, or I should say the true representation of the North. My next question is that noting that there have been some policy concerns and possibly some concerns raised, what type of consultation will the department be going into and what type of research will they be expanding into before they bring it to the business plans? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think most importantly that we should state that we are going to be using the work that has been done in the past as a starting point and moving forward with that. We don't see a need to get into a lot more review in a sense of beginning something new and trying to get more information, we feel we have a lot of information. Then, of course, we would be working with the Members of this Assembly, with AOC, as we go through the steps moving forward to ensure that we are on the right track and working along with them to develop a program that would be beneficial for government and our staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just my last comment, maybe if I could get a response and I'll leave this dead horse alone and quit beating it. I'll just proceed

with a question. Is it anticipated that the FMBS, as in the Minister, will be consulting the national public service for any guidance or overview on possible examples of how we can implement this process? I know I'm a big advocate of this Public Service Commission. I've seen many other Members of AOC seem very interested in this and I would like to see that we get a nice, strong model as it proceeds forward with a draft. Does the Minister anticipate any consultation with the federal public service at all? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of our practices is to work with other jurisdictions and look at best practices that are out there. Again, if we can adopt something that is working well in other jurisdictions and make it fit better in the Northwest Territories, then we will work with those models that are out there. Our intention is to work with the Members of this Assembly, come up with a model that will be beneficial to our staff and to how we carry on the business of hiring and dealing with our staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. General comments. Next in line is Mr. Roger Allen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments are specifically related to the $1.127 million increase to the power subsidy program. It concerns me greatly, Mr. Chairman, that the territorial power support program has a significant increase on an annual basis. It comes back to the very point I want to make, and unfortunately there's nowhere in the budget process that we can address this to the NWT Power Corporation. I think it requires us to revisit some of the many contributing factors as this power subsidy program increases at an alarming rate. One of the issues that was raised to me in the last several weeks was the fact that the low end of 700 kilowatt hours for residential use is not effective in the Northwest Territories during the cold winter months. This is proven in Inuvik where some of the power bills have increased over 100 percent to some of the consumers. I think one of the areas we want to highlight is not so much in the overall parts of the increase, but as a matter of principle of how we should look at more sustainable environmentally-friendly power sources. One of the questions raised to me by one of the local contract groups in Inuvik was if they had the ability to influence a policy change, where they would be able to sell back private power generation into the main grid to see if they could help alleviate some of those cost factors.

So I will conclude that statement by asking, through yourself, Mr. Chair, to the Minister, if there was further consideration given to the proposed initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the power subsidy program has increased dramatically and, as we have highlighted, has grown over the years. A large part of that is the actual rates themselves have jumped significantly in a number of communities. For example, if you look at 1998-1999, the community of Lutselk'e used to pay 39.3995 cents per kilowatt hour. It is now at 73 cents per kilowatt hour. We have examples of that. The community of Rae Lakes in 1998-99 was 44 cents and is now up to over $1 a kilowatt hour. So a lot of the drive in that is the rate changes that have happened over the years.

The other area that the government is looking at -- as was evidenced in previous assemblies with reports coming forward on how we should look at delivering our power program -- is renewable energy through the hydro facilities that are being discussed now with a number of land claim groups in the territory. The other side of it is, as well, the specifics of looking at the initiatives under the Power Corporation. I can't give the response. The Minister responsible for the Power Corporation would have to do that in those particular areas.

I guess for the average consumption, there has been an exercise done over the last number of years to see what the average kilowatt hour use is. We have that breakdown by community. For the average, a large number of customers out there manage to, on a yearly basis, stay under that 700 kilowatt area. Of course, that's an average and we know that there are high cost units out there that impact the residents.

So on the Power Corporation side there has been work done through the Executive and there have been some reports done and we continue to have to look at that. As stated earlier, this continues to grow. We're adding just over $1 million to this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Allen.