Thank you. Mr. Todd.

No, no. If I said that then it is inaccurate. I have actually said the reverse. There is a requirement for ongoing housing in the smaller communities in some of the centres that may, because of the financing of these units, require some guarantee, either through a lease or through some guarantee that this government will need to provide for its staff, whether it is teachers, butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers. What we are doing here is re-examining our whole leasing policy in an effort to contain the expenditures to the best of our ability, but at the same time, balancing that discussion out with reassuring the developers, banks, and our staff, that housing will be available to them through a lease arrangement. If, as Mr. Voytilla points out, the private sector market is not there.

For example, if you go into a small community like Grise Fiord or Arctic Bay in my colleague, Mr. Barnabas's area, if there is a requirement for housing because the teacher ratio has to change, et cetera, or there is a requirement for new government employees, we will make an arrangement with that community, one way or the other or members within it, whether it is the co-op, the development corporation, or individuals, if they require some form of guarantee or a lease arrangement, we will make that arrangement to secure the housing that is necessary. Now this is the same arrangement that has been advocated by NTI and NIC in their whole drive towards Nunavut, and it is the same arrangement that we have here in the western Arctic with many of the communities, including Tuktoyaktuk in the western Arctic. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I do not have the statement in front of me, but my position is clear. Again, I will use the FDL project, if you will allow me, as an example. Where we have a lease arrangement that in the opinion of the government and that cannot be demonstrated there is a requirement for a long-term lease to ensure their mortgages and the long-term money is in place, we will get out of that lease. That is what I meant by that and that is what we are doing. But, where there is a continuing requirement for the government to provide some security to, let us say, a co-operative in, Toonoonik-Sahoonik Co-operative in Pond Inlet, or a development corporation in Arviat, or an individual in Inuvik, we will then provide him, if there is a requirement, if with the security they need to put the mortgages into place, to provide the staff housing that is required for our staff. That is all, nothing else.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Well, if there are any empty units, as I said earlier, I will turn them over to the Housing Corporation.

Thank you. Schedule of lease budget requirement. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Steen, my patience is measured by this little timer here. Thank you. Mr. Todd.

We are in the throes of discussions with the Housing Corporation right now, as it was a budget initiative and both Mr. Arlooktoo and myself are working that through at this time. It is our intention, where there are vacant staff leased units, where we are obligated legally to continue to, on the fiscal side, to transfer those to the Housing Corporation to alleviate, in some small way, the urgent and desperate housing shortage we have right across the Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Yes, that is correct.

Thank you. Are we okay on that, Mr. Steen? Thank you. The chair would now like to recognize Mr. Erasmus. We are on page 2-36, schedule of leased budget requirements. Mr. Erasmus.

Mr. Chairman, at the time I thought perhaps we did not have a quorum.

We do not. I will ring the bell. The chair recognizes the quorum. Schedule of lease budget requirements. Agreed. The information item provided to Members. Page 2-37, detail of work performed on behalf of third parties. Total department, nothing, just information provided for you. Moving along. Go back to page 2-29, program summary, Financial Management Board Secretariat, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance is $40,840,000. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.