I said it is one of the lowest rents in the Northwest Territories right now. The rent in Fort Smith, because they have their own market rent, is actually lower. Fort Smith has a lower rate than Yellowknife. We have contracted a private company to complete a study of housing rental costs in the north. We were told that the idea of using, for instance, regional market rents would be too costly for administrative purposes, but also would create great hardship for employees. We have decided that the Yellowknife market rent because it is checked by CMHC twice per year, they survey Yellowknife and check to see what a realistic market rent should be. Based on that, we know that the rents will be assessed by the federal government at least twice per year, and we should take advantage of that.

The final point, which the Member should know, is that the salary structure for NWT government staff is based on the Yellowknife cost of living. This is the level we use for salary structures, so we decided using the Yellowknife market rents as the basis for our strategy was the fair, reasonable and logical thing to do. Thank you.