Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the Member is quite correct. Our programs should be geared, especially our social housing programs, to lower income people. Right now, there is no rhyme, reason or justification how the rental program is being implemented. For example, in Iqaluit, we have someone making $1,527.88 a month. They paid $255 a month for rent, making $1,500 a month. In the same community, a person who makes $9,170 a month pays $245 a month for rent. It is cheaper than the person making $1,500.
We have to address those inadequacies within our programs. They are not even fair to people within the same community. So, we will address those to encourage social housing for those people who are actually in need. We have a long waiting list of low income people who need social housing. We are going to assist, as much as possible, the high income people into home ownership programs. We will do that by our existing access programs as well as encouraging people to go to the financial institutions, with which we have an agreement. I understand, from the Minister of Finance, that they will lend money in these communities and we have to help those people, through consultation, to access that money.
We are also going to beef up and try to sell as many of our northern rentals to high-income people and make small repair programs available for those units. We are also making moves this year...Where last year, any non-allocated units in the eastern Arctic or in non-home ownership communities were lent to other communities that wanted them, I didn't do that this year. We are going to build those 40 access units on spec. When people want to get into that program, those units will be there. We are delivering them, regardless of whether we could give them out. We are doing those things.
We are also looking at the rent supp program that we have in place, or whether CMHC will agree so that we can turn those rent supps over to home ownership and let those clients buy them and replace them with some social housing the following year and let CMHC come in and carry the O & M 50 per cent cost.
Those are all the new ways we are looking at helping people to get into home ownership. The key here that everybody must remember is that we have a major housing problem in the Northwest Territories. We have many low-income people in all of our ridings. We have high-income people in social housing who are taking that housing away from low-income people. We have other programs that can assist those people. Social housing, a rental program, should be for low income people. We should do everything possible with the higher income people to assist them into home ownership. That is what we are trying to do. Thank you.