Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister's effort and determination in this. I come, too, from a region where a shortage of housing is acute. Social housing, social service programs, the tradition started by the federal government in the early 1960s. We as a territorial government inherited this dilemma and are trying to deal with it through better education, stay in school, Arctic College programs, employment.
We also try to stimulate the economy so that people can find jobs and be self-sufficient, including acquiring private housing for themselves and their families. It has been extremely difficult to undo what has become a sort of norm or habit, to be independent of the government, to be dependent on the government.
For those who manage to become self-reliant through employment or holding small businesses, they cannot get bank mortgages because they are not allowed to own their own land or lot in their own community. The federal government is now making drastic cuts in public housing, or social housing without making alternative solutions to what has become a very dependent society on government programs, including housing or, especially housing.
They need to be given a different avenue, including land ownership, guaranteed mortgage, and affordable utilities to heat or light their houses. A very simple way, if you are going to cut social housing which we are dependent on now, then there should be a program allowing individuals who have tried to live by themselves, through employment, in wage economy, some avenue to get mortgaging program either by allowing them to own rather than lease in the community, especially in most of the communities in the eastern Arctic, or get some kind of a mortgage guarantee to allow those who are working. If they own their own homes, that will put a little bit of pressure off the social housing needs that exist today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.