Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be speaking to the motion and speaking in favour of the motion as put forward by my colleague from Yellowknife North. Indeed, we have had difficult choices to make in considering the reductions and meeting our targeted reductions in our budget. But, I believe that we have made those good choices in good faith and this is a choice that we are making. We are asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to reinstate the subsidy to seniors in the way of fossil fuel subsidy. In response to Mr. Dent's suggestion that this motion is premature, may I suggest that no, this motion is not premature. The cut of the senior fossil fuel subsidy without reviewing it and giving it due consideration, that indeed, Mr. Speaker, is premature. So, I am aware that there is income support available to all citizens in the Northwest Territories, but I do not think that we should be asking our seniors to go through the tedious task of applying for income support. This was a program that was in place. It was working.

On the subject of charging rent to seniors living in public housing, I believe that what the Minister Dent said in respect to that is somewhat misleading. He is making a categorical statement that every senior living in public housing is a low income individual and that is absolutely not the case. It may be an east/west issue. There may be more people in the east, for example, that have not come out of the wage economy that paying rent would be more difficult for. But I can guarantee you that in some of the western communities, there are people living in public housing who did come out of the wage economy who are getting pensions not only from this government but from the federal government and are classified as low income. So to suggest that the Members of this House would try and charge low income seniors for something to supplement middle income seniors is a categorical generalization which in fact is absolutely incorrect.