Mr. Speaker, one of the elements of the staff housing strategy is to increase the rent which employees pay in all communities to a level where it would be more realistic and equal to what is provided at market rates in Yellowknife. Once that starts to happen, I believe community corporations and private developers will find ways in which they can offer to build staff houses at community levels and simply lease directly to, not only government employees, but other people who require houses.
The sale of staff houses makes it financially more attractive for government employees who want yet another alternative to renting. We have offered to sell the government units to tenants who presently occupy them and assure tenants, if they cannot sell to someone else in the private market, we will buy the unit back.
We do not have as much money available to us to provide not only staff housing, but also public housing and home ownership units. We did not have much money last year and we do not have much money this year. There is no certainty that the money we now have is secure because of the fiscal situation of the federal government. With the federal election, it may improve or it may get worse. This strategy is trying to address the situation we find in the communities where we need other elements and simply more government money being allocated to provide staff housing. We need to encourage private developers and community corporations to move into the housing market, and we need to attract tenants to become private home owners as well. We believe, by making it more attractive in those different areas, we will be able, under the present fiscal situation, to at least maintain the situation as we should. Thank you.