Thank you, Madam Speaker. This issue of students has been raised to me many times and in many different areas of the Northwest Territories. For example, if they were living in public housing today and they wanted to go to Arctic College in Iqaluit or Fort Smith, they would have to give up their public housing and move there. A lot of people don't want to do that because there is a long waiting list for public housing.
But, under the new rent scale, the housing authority would sub-lease their unit while they are going to school, so they don't have the cost of that unit and they get their unit back. And also, through the access home ownership programs, their payments would drop right down to the minimum because they are living on student financial assistance and that assistance would not be assessed as income because it is only enough money for them to go to school and live.
The other program we have a major problem with still is the rural and remote housing program, a CMHC program that we administer. A lot of those houses are in the Delta area. In this program, people were asked to pay 25 per cent of their salary for 25 years, or not longer. That program is very hard for us to administer. At the present time, I am getting a legal question answered from the Department of Justice to see whether or not we can give that program back to CMHC, because CMHC has been very inflexible and has not agreed to the recommendations we have put forward to them. Thank you.