Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I still can't figure out how the allocations are done. I've been trying to mix some numbers up here just to determine whether or not the allocation is actually based on need. You've also got a situation, Mr. Chairman, where they do have what they call market communities. Those are larger communities that have housing markets that are available. Mr. Chairman, this year's allocation... the Minister refers to the core need. Look at Fort Liard and Lutsel K'e. Their core needs are both 33 but Fort Liard gets three and Lutsel K'e gets one. I don't know how they base that core need.
The other thing is that last year the Baffin region got 53 and the South Slave got 61. Baffin region has 937 in core need. In the South Slave, there's 559, for just about the same amount of people surveyed: between 2,600 and 2,700. It's pretty close in numbers but for some reason, last year, based on that need, the South Slave still got more, even though the need was more in the Baffin. At least this year, it has changed around a bit. I just can't figure out how you come up with these needs. The same year the survey was done in 1992, Fort Wrigley got 26 units, Hay River got 20 and Providence was next with 15. But, those were all mixed at that time.
I'm saying, Mr. Chairman, that now that we're really in a time where money is scarce, we should try to find the best possible way to address the needs of people, and I don't see that. I can't figure out how they came up with the numbers they did. I find it quite disturbing that Lutsel K'e and Fort Liard, for example, have the same needs but one community gets more than the other.
If you look at the territorial-wide survey between the Baffin and the South Slave, which have the same number of communities, the Baffin requires more than the South Slave, but for some reason, last year after the survey was done, their allocation went down, which meant that the South Slave went up. I appreciate that the South Slave got more, but that still doesn't answer the whole question of need. The Minister keeps referring to basing it on need, but I don't see how the numbers match. It doesn't jibe for some reason.