Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I recognize that the department has seriously looked at all of the alternatives for the higher income families from what the Minister has advised us on. Is the department, in their consultations of this document that is going to be going forward to members of the public and the tenants, going to survey those higher income families to identify exactly how much need and demand there will be out there once this new rent scale policy is put in place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will be visiting every tenant to see how we can assist them to get into home ownership. That is the survey Mr. Ng is speaking about. We will do that in the summer months. By July 1, 1994, we are going to implement the decreases in rent immediately. This will help some people. There are people who make around $1,000 a month. They are paying $185 a month for rent right now. Their rent will go down to $32 a month. It is encouraging lower income people to keep working and not go on social assistance.

There also might be people in our communities who want to go to Arctic College and they don't want to give up their public unit. This way, they can go to school in Iqaluit or Fort Smith and they are guaranteed their unit when they come back to their community. While they are going to school, the funds that they receive for getting educated are not taken into consideration in their rent. It is going to help many people. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I must admit that I haven't had a chance to go through this whole rent scale in detail yet. I have just quickly breezed through it along with all of the other documents that we received. In taking a preliminary look at it, I would like to ask a question similar to what my honourable colleague, Mr. Allooloo, brought up regarding the rent cost zones. It doesn't seem to me that there is any consideration given for the cost zone differentials for families under six. Am I incorrect?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that is true. The average size of families living in social housing is 5.2. The cost of living deduction is rent deduction for households of six or more people. That is applied in addition to that basic income deduction of $400 a month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to confirm. You are saying that there isn't any consideration for families under six. Wow! Mr. Chairman, during the House, I raised that question on whether or not the cost differential of communities would be taken into consideration in this new rent scale, the revision now being proposed, and the Minister, at that time, I will have to go back and check my Hansard, but, my recollection is that the Minister assured us that that would be the case. I am wondering about the reasoning for not including cost differentials for families of five members or less. Why wasn't this taken into consideration in this review, then? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I misunderstood the Member. Regarding the new rent scale deductions for special circumstances on page 28, everyone gets that $400 a month deduction, even the smaller families. On top of that, there is a cost of living deduction for bigger families.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Then I'm correct in my assumption, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has said basically then, a majority of the families in the communities wouldn't qualify for any cost differentials because of the differences in community living with a regular sized family of 5.2. So in effect, you've negated any kind of cost differential consideration for any communities. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's the basic $400. Everybody gets the $400 a month but then for the larger families, you get an additional rent scale reduction. Then there's also the cost zone and that's different again. That's the actual cost of living in every community.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand the Minister has said that every tenant, regardless of where they live, will receive a $400 basic reduction. Everybody receives a $400 basic reduction. My point is though, that doesn't take into consideration the cost of living differential in communities then for families of five, which is your regular sized family. Everybody gets that whether you're in cost zone one or cost zone ten, you get a $400 reduction. It's only if you have six, according to this cost of living cost zone rent reduction scale, if you have a family of six to 20, as shown in here, then you get some kind of consideration for cost of living. My point is that the regular sized, average family of five or less gets any consideration for the difference in the cost of living in their community. Why not?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, you are correct.

I realize that I'm correct. I'm asking a question of the Minister. I would like to ask him why wasn't the regular sized family taken into consideration for this cost of living differential factor of a rent reduction? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member has a legitimate concern that he's raised. I thought, and I guess I didn't understand it as well as I should have, that it would vary according to the cost. I understand the issue and I agree with the Member that if you've got five people in your family and you live in Fort Smith, and if you've got five people in your family and live in Pond Inlet, it should be different. I agree. I will take that back and advise the committee in future. Thank you.