Mr. Speaker, the Member talks about rhetoric coming from myself, when I tell him that he should listen to himself once and awhile. I have spent a lot of time, many hours thinking of how we can deal with the housing shortage in the NWT.

It is true, I am not just blaming the federal government. It is true that they have cut all of our funding for building new social housing units, and the amount of money that they give us to run those houses has been capped. We spend, as a government, more per capita on housing than any other government in the country. That just goes to show how seriously we take this issue.

What we have done is spend about $50 million approximately each year to assist northern residents build their own homes. The idea behind that is that as these people move out of social housing units and into their own homes, and become more independent, they free up the social housing units, and we can offer those houses to other people.

I talked to the Standing Committee on Social Programs late last year about a plan that we were working on, trying to increase the number of new housing starts. I am pleased to say that, I believe on this Friday I will be presenting the proposal to them subject to Cabinet approval on Thursday.