Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You are absolutely right Mr. Todd, we can do the Rent Income Supplement Program, we can change our designs, we can bring new housing programs into place, we can do all kinds of things, we are not going to find $22 million from within, it is as simple as that.
Someone is going to suffer. We are going to have to look to possibly within our own capital budget. It does not seem that there is any money there either. Every time we turn around, the federal government seems to kick us in the head again, when it comes to funding.
I believe that strategy, we started talking about this yesterday. By working through the Premiers office, at the highest level of government, directly with the Prime Minister, I think that this is the door that is open to us right now. I have already met, and informed some of the aboriginal leaders in the Northwest Territories by working with the ordinary Members, Cabinet working together, we should be able to get somewhere. We may not be able to get everything that we want, but we could give it a real good try.
Housing, as all Members know, is the number one priority of this Assembly. There is no other jurisdiction in Canada that spends the percentage of their budget on housing that we do. We all have to go back to our communities, and we all live in those communities, we all have to see what inadequate housing does. I have seen it in mine and I have seen it in many of yours. It is not a pretty site. When you have to pick young men off the street who committed suicide or search for bodies in the river, or see people staggering down the street, kids not in school, people sick, that is all due to inadequate housing.
Constitutional development, aboriginal rights, that is all great stuff, but it does not do us much good without a roof over our head. Our people would never advance without proper housing, that is number one. We learn to take care of our own family. Have our own house, then we started advancing, the rest of the stuff is just basic motherhood statements.
It is a serious issue, we have to address it, and I agree with the Member that we should come up with a strategy together and work together to try to address it.