Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although the Legislature dealt with the staff housing strategy last week and there was a motion passed and as a government we responded, I know some Members took interest in the fact that CBC Radio did play a couple of morning pieces, outdated pieces by David Miller that continued to take some shots at our housing strategy suggesting we are almost totally deaf to concerns, long after we have made substantive changes to our strategy. I wanted to take the occasion to address that because I think that although Mr. Miller spent quite some time letting certain employees in Fort Liard lament their sad case of not being able to continue making payments on their loans and car, neither the employee or CBC pointed out that these employees receive the standard accommodation allowance of $450 per month. I found that very misleading. I am not upset about it, but felt that if I found some occasion I would bring that to the attention of Members to balance out the picture.

Having said that, there is no interest on the part of government to do anything with the accommodation allowance. We will continue to provide it to employees and we have extended it to all employees in level III communities. We see it as a great incentive to get people into private home ownership. That is the way we will continue to envisage it. Thank you.

Directorate