Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. As I said in my Member's statements, recent events pertaining to NTPC raise more questions than answers about the government's intentions regarding the Power Corporation. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain, since high power rates are known to be a deterrent to industry and economic growth, why NTPC has been allowed to increase their power rates by more than 40 per cent in the last four years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there have been increases of the power rates over the last few years. These were driven by increases in costs, many of them unavoidable by the Power Corporation, such as the increasing costs under collective agreements, increasing costs of fuel. Also, too, the actual amount of power that is distributed each year by the Power Corporation has not been rising to meet these costs. Therefore, increases were asked for of the PUB and granted. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since NTPC is the agency charged with providing the most reasonable power costs to all northerners, can the Minister explain why it's planning to go into competition with the private sector in Hay River even though that may make it necessary to overcharge customers in other communities to provide the promised lower rates to Hay River?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I think that that ultimately is going to lead to more questions at another time. However, I move on. Can the Minister explain if it is the intention of the government to remove third party accountability of NTPC and make it a department of the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there is no long-term changes of that nature presently contemplated by the Government of the Northwest Territories. We will, Mr. Speaker, of course be tasking the new board of directors. We're looking at the whole operations, and we're hoping they'll come up with creative solutions that will continue enabling the Corporation to provide cheap, affordable power to the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, what is the government's long-term plan to work with constituents, communities, and the private sector including Northland Utilities to stabilize or even reduce power rates for all Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course, the new board is tasked with, as I mentioned, providing power at the cheapest possible rate that is reliable and safe. All applications for increases, of course, go through the PUB, which is an onerous process which enables the public utilities board to look at the operations of the Corporation and either grant, modify, or refuse the application, so the government will be working with the new board. Hopefully, we can achieve even more savings than we currently have. So ongoing, we will be looking at new solutions, new ideas with the new board.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned earlier in my statement here, my questions would be to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I am really encouraged when I first read the material published by this government, Skills 4 Success. I think if there's more material published like that, it would be very encouraging to the reader and the students out in the small remote communities. There's a broad horizon out there, and a welcome knowledge to be accumulated in preparation for the career of choice.

So my first question to the Minister is: what post-graduation programs are available currently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, Aurora College institutes that we have throughout the Northwest Territories, Fort Smith, Yellowknife, and Inuvik is an opportunity to develop skilled development as well as further education. We do have a lot of partnerships and provide through our Student Financial Assistance program which we made improvements to, provided to anybody that wants to further their post-secondary education.

If students are wanting to get through some specific programs, or any resident for that matter, they can go through our regional Education, Culture and Employment service centers. It's for all NWT residents, and there's a lot of programs that we've provided in terms of resumes, filling out applications, counseling, career counseling, education counseling and other things like interview skills, and I encourage everyone to go visit the regional service centers if they're looking at getting into post-secondary programs or filling out student financial assistance programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In particular, there's one course requirement for the students if they wanted to go to, say, NAIT or Grant MacEwan, for example. It's referred to as 30-1, 30-2, in preparation for that, and I understand it's not being offered in our Northern institutions. So that's just one challenge that could be placed on the agenda for this post-graduation seminar. Is that correct in saying that? There is those course requirements down South?

I will have to get more specifics on the 30-1, 30-2. We do have a lot of 30-1, 30-2 courses varied, whether it's math or chemistry, but I have to get specifics on that one that the Member is bringing up.

However, we do offer programs in the K-12 system. All Grade eight, Grade nine students in the NWT have opportunities to take a 25-hour career awareness course that involves developing a personal career program, so that's starting them very early, and then when they get into the high school, all high school students must take a three-credit course, which is 75 hours in career and life management course in order to graduate, so we are starting early. I have to figure out what specific 30-1, 30-2 program the Member is referring to. He might be referring to the CALM program, but one other thing that we are doing as he mentioned in Skills 4 Success program is you are going to get a handbook out into the schools in the fall time. As students are looking at their career developments, we wanted to show them what the in-demand jobs are going to be over for the next 15 years, as mentioned earlier in this session, when somebody brought up the same questions in terms of getting that information out into the schools.

Would the Minister support financially through a pilot project process on the Sahtu graduates recently and going to be graduated from their respective home school on a seminar a post-graduation seminar held in one of the Sahtu communities to provide orientation and mentorship guidance, should the individual choose to go down South?

All of our communities or in schools have guidance counsellors that will help students who want to go into post-secondary, give them all the information that they need. We do have that information at the Aurora College centers as well if you want to apply to some of our institutions that we partner up very closely with, such as NAIT, University of Alberta, and we make sure that the student has the right information wanting to go into post-secondary.

We also have career development officers, and most recently, employment transition officers getting out and doing this kind of work to create awareness on the programs that we have at ECE. I know a lot of communities also have career fairs throughout the year, and I know that our regional office in the Sahtu is very proactive in getting that information out to the students, and I believe they had a good one not too long ago in Norman Wells.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question to the Minister is: if the Minister would commit to 50 per cent of the costs for the students that graduated in one of the Sahtu communities for this summer to explore options of career choice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We can't commit the financial amount at this time, but we can get our regional office, contact the regional office and have them speak with the student to explore the options of what's out there in terms of wanting to get out and further their education, and that's something we support. We made a lot of great programs, enhancements to the student financial assistance program, and we know that students are really happy about those improvements.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement, I talked about the lack of increases in certain areas. I'd like to ask the Minister why was there no increase in area of mental health and addictions, health promotion, and community wellness work for starts? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.