Thank you, Mr. Speaker. "I hear of so many people, especially in the smaller more isolated communities, whose rent would be far more than they earn. It is true there is this hardship allowance you mention, but that reeks of welfare and will turn many people off and make them leave the north. If your policy goes ahead, it will leave our hospital here truly understaffed. It is hard enough now to get staff, let alone if their take-home pay were to be severely cut. We have heard about teachers in Igloolik and we can be sure the same would be true of most other communities. Then there would be a tidal wave effect on the rest of the northern economy, failures of local construction companies, hotels, stores and even hardship for churches."
Mr. Speaker, I hope we can proceed and look at this objectively and cooperatively in order to avoid these dire consequences. I look forward to working with the Minister to that end. Thank you.
---Applause