Thank you. Minister of Housing, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Whenever a tenant makes it known that he is interested in purchasing a northern rental unit from the Housing Corporation, then the same type of client counsel is given to that tenant as a potential home owner. The Housing Corporation will meet with that client. They will discuss with him the costs of operating and maintaining that unit. They will also help the client to obtain title or leasehold interest in the land the unit is on. They will tell the tenant about the amount of fuel, power, water and sewer the unit has used in previous years. They will also do a condition rating of the unit. Then they will go over the back rents with the tenant and I believe one-third of that rent would go towards the purchase of the unit. Also, if the unit had been renovated in previous years, they would consider that in the selling price. These are for the units that were built prior to 1975. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

That is fine and I appreciate the response. Again, my concern is that some tenants don't know that they have an option or are eligible to purchase. When you give them notice and go through the information, you forget to advise the tenant how much credit they have. In this day and age, when we are advocating home ownership, why isn't the Housing Corporation more proactive in looking at turning over some of these units to the tenants?

Minister of Housing, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are going to be proactive. We are proactive in selling the northern rental units. I will direct the president of the Housing Corporation to write to all 450 tenants requesting them to express their interest on the purchase of their unit. I fully realize that a portion of these tenants are elders and have lived in those units for many years and cannot afford to operate and maintain that unit. So they will stay under the public housing stock. Then the elders can enjoy living in those units at a very minimum rent. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I thank the Minister for taking the action he said he would. It is possible that some of these tenants, especially long-term tenants now have such an amount of credit built up that they have more credit than what the unit is worth. I'm wondering if the Housing Corporation has considered just turning over some of these units to the tenants. If they can afford the upkeep of them, maybe we should be looking at giving the units to individuals.

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Morin.

Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Thank you. So, will the Minister be looking into an initiative...Where tenants can afford the upkeep, would he turn them over for a dollar, if their credits are such an amount that they are higher than the unit is worth?

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will direct the Housing Corporation president to try to sell as many of these units as possible as soon as possible and to make sure that clients get all the credits available to them. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you. I don't have the allocations here with me, but I would like to ask the Minister, in his housing home ownership allocation last year there were also what are known as rent supplements. I understand there are a total of 133 units, but I don't know where the units are going to be. I would like to ask the Minister where those units were allocated.

Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I didn't understand the question. Can I please ask the Member to repeat the question? Thank you.

Mr. Gargan.