Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members of the Legislative Assembly are aware that I have just returned from Ottawa from an important meeting with the Honourable David Dingwall, the Minister responsible for CMHC.

The basic purpose of my meeting was to brief the new Minister on: the great need for social housing in the NWT, to both meet the existing backlog of 3,600 units of social housing in the NWT and new units needed to keep pace with our population growth; the extremely serious impact of total federal funding cuts for new social housing by the previous government; the unique northern factors which have resulted in our government assigning the highest possible priority to social housing; and, the urgent need for reinstatement of federal funding.

I am pleased to report to this House that the Honourable David Dingwall was sympathetic to our social housing problems and the severe impact of financial cuts imposed by the previous federal government. Through the good work of our Members of Parliament, Ethel Blondin-Andrew and Jack Anawak, he had already been made aware of many of our concerns.

He clearly understood that there were several housing factors which are unique to the NWT and which do not exist to the same extent in southern Canada where social housing is a small percentage of their overall housing stock. In the south there are many other alternatives to social housing. In most NWT communities, there is very limited private housing available.

The Minister indicated that he would support our request for an extension of six months to the January 1994 deadline, so that we might present our case further.

At this early stage of the new federal government, it was most important that we seized the opportunity to clearly state the seriousness of our housing problems and the critical role federal funding reinstatement will play in a solution.

I was impressed by Mr. Dingwall's understanding of the issues in the NWT and the level of his sincerity to work toward solutions.

I will continue to keep the House, the Advisory Committee on Housing, the Standing Committee on Finance, aboriginal organizations, communities and local housing associations and authorities fully up to date, on both our continuing strategy and efforts to restore federal funding.

I also took the opportunity to discuss our government's business incentive policy and its future application to federal projects.

I emphasized with the Minister that the business incentive policy is not a trade barrier, but is needed by northern companies to offset the higher costs of operating in the NWT and to compete with southern companies.

It was agreed that a senior official of the departments would examine this issue further. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause