Mr. Speaker, it is true that on March 29th, CMHC advised the NWT Housing Corporation that they will no longer include the costs of the electricity to tenants and administration costs for local housing organizations ... They will no longer share those costs between our two governments. Mr. Speaker, when this happened, it caused great concern to myself and to Cabinet. As the Member said, this could mean a loss of up to $10 million on top of what we are already losing. This was effective on April 1st, the next business day.

Upon receiving this notice, I immediately directed our corporation to meet with CMHC to try to work things out. So this past Monday, April 29th, the president of the NWT Housing Corporation, Joe Handley, met with senior officials of CMHC in Ottawa on this issue. I also travelled to Ottawa and I was able to speak personally to the federal Minister responsible for CMHC, the Honourable Diane Marleau. We have agreed that our officials will begin meeting in Yellowknife on the 22nd of this month, and will continue until this matter is resolved. Ms. Marleau and I are optimistic that this matter can be resolved without substantial increases in costs to the NWT Housing Corporation.

CMHC has also agreed to postpone the implementation of their proposed changes until at least June 30th, to allow time for these issues to be resolved.