Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The new rent scale for the NWT Housing Corporation was tabled yesterday and is up for discussion today. This new rent scale hasn't been developed overnight. It's been a long outstanding issue with the Housing Corporation as well as with people out in the communities. Many people raised concerns about the old rent scale; that is wasn't treating people fairly or equally throughout the Northwest Territories. The old policy was in place since 1983. The new program is designed to go into place now to address the inadequacies within our program.
The main principle that we tried to meet and tried to address is that we treated all our tenants fairly and equally no matter where they live in the Northwest Territories. We wanted to provide incentives for tenants to take advantage of opportunities for home ownership programs, and for education and employment as well. Our old scale did not address these things. We also wanted to continue to enjoy the existing funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. We
also wanted to make sure that tenants could afford the rent that was being requested of them.
The last time this rent scale was brought to this House it was by Mr. Butters, when he was the Minister. It wasn't implemented at that time. We've worked very closely with the communities and the Special Committee on Social Housing to update this scale. One of the things that all Members must remember is that our job as MLAs and as Ministers is to try to treat everybody fairly and as equal as possible. I've always attempted to do that. I always do that in my riding as well. I believe the reason people re-elect me is that when people come and ask me for assistance, I don't ask them who they are or who they represent, I just ask them how I can help them. That's what my job is. I look at that the same way I should be handling my job as the Minister; to try to treat people all the same, all equal.
With the limited amount of dollars that we do have, we have to try to help those people who are in the most need. This is what we're trying to do with this new scale. I'm not going to carry on and on with this issue, Mr. Chairman. I will be happy to answer any question any Member has. I'm here to listen to any concerns that you have and I will try to address them. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.