Mr. Chairman, one of the issues that keeps coming up time and time again in my work as a Member, is with regard to the eligibility of HAP clients to get units, and I am sure the Minister is aware of it. We have a situation in communities where there are not any banks, and for most of the collateral required for a home mortgage, you have to have land or something to that effect. Most of the people in the communities do not own land. It is all leased. The other problem is that most of the banks are reluctant to provide loans to people that do not reside in that area, in the community. We do have people that do have a high salary bracket that do not fit into the program. Of course, the other side is that we also have people who are capable of maintaining their own homes, that do not meet the qualifications because of a lower income.

I keep getting letters from members of my constituency to intervene on their behalf to be selected as a HAP client. Even though I do, I know it is a waste of time, because I know what the rules are, and I tell them, "The rules are this; you have to be below this income in order to qualify, and you make too much money. I do not think the rules have changed, but I will try anyways." Even though I do, I do not succeed. So I would like to ask the new Minister if he has given any thought with regard to maybe broadening the eligibility for home-owners.

The other thing is, we also have a situation where the policy does exist that people that own, under the SSHAG, small settlement home assistance grant, program, for example, do not qualify for HAP units. The program itself was an earlier version of the HAP program. But most of the families I know, when those units were first built, cannot expand because of the log structure. They could get home improvement grants, but you cannot cut a wall into a log building without really unstabilizing it, and that is the difficulty. But I would think that maybe those people should also be considered for units. Naturally, when the program started back in 1978, those families have grown in size. When they first were allotted, they were based on a design for three people, like two-bedroom units. Most of those families that I know of have now increased their families by about four to six children, but the condition is still the same as it was back in 1978. So there is that difficulty, and I would appreciate if the department would look at maybe changing or reviewing their eligibility criteria as well as their policy governing the eligibility, too.