Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This afternoon I rise to inform the House of the dire need of housing in all the north. However, I would like to focus my statement on the communities being Wha Ti. Mr. Speaker, I have received a letter from Wha Ti showing that they do, indeed, have housing problems. You are aware that in Wha Ti 88 percent of the housing in Wha Ti are having problems. This 88 or 82 percent are housing in core need. This means that 82 percent of all houses in Wha Ti are either unsafe to live in or they have to have too many people living in them. These are the hard facts.
The committee has many letters on file from doctors and nursing stations and other groups saying children's health is being compromised because of the conditions where they have been.
This is an important issue for myself and my constituents. I hope the Department of Housing will come up with some type of solution. I believe this is an important state that we are now approaching 1998, and yet we have people in this kind of condition within a country I would live in, not only sub-standard housing but unsafe and crowded conditions as well. For people to live a productive life, they must have suitable housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.