Thank you, Mr. Chairman. An attempt was made to develop this new rent scale back in 1988 when Mr. Butters, the previous Minister of Housing, tried to bring it in. It was in 1988 or 1989. It didn't pass at that time because there were no home ownership programs for people to even get into. Then it resurfaced again when I became Minister. At that time, I think we were subsidizing higher-income people around $2 million or $3 million a year in some of the communities where other home owners weren't being subsidized that same amount.
Besides the financial problem we have, if we didn't do anything then we would have a major financial problem in the Housing Corporation and this government because the money would have to come from somewhere. So one of the guiding principles to develop a new rent scale was so that everybody was treated fairly throughout the Northwest Territories so everybody had access to programs and it didn't matter which community you lived in. The smaller communities are basically given the same fair treatment.
The process we went through when it was first introduced and then to go through the consultation process it was close to two years. All that time there were public announcements, meetings in every community, regional meetings, we also had the Advisory Committee on Social Housing to look at it. That's how we ended up coming up, in the end, with the rent scale. Immediately, when the rent scale was passed in the House, people were informed because that's the only time we could really inform individuals saying this new rent scale is now a fact. Before, it was just a perceived document, it wasn't something that was finished.
Also, we're working very aggressively with financial institutions and changing our programs and consulting with those people who it affects. We're finding great success; for example, in Iqaluit there's been a great uptake on home ownership and that's good. I believe I can safely say that we don't have any units not allocated this year. The units that are being built, people are saying we want those units now.
In my communities there is still a waiting list for home ownership, and we've had this policy in effect since 1983, that's quite some time ago, and there's still a waiting list because we just don't have enough money to pay for housing for everybody, to finance housing for everybody in the north who needs it. I believe there's a need of 3,600 units and we just don't have the money for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.