Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to speak about the social housing rent scale. As Members may recall, this government put a halt on raising rents last year for tenants in social housing.

The moratorium on rent increases was to allow work to begin on integrating the social housing and income support programs. A number of important opportunities on the two programs to work more closely together have now been identified.

Some of these opportunities include:

- Developing an appeal process to look at cases where rent increases may be causing true hardship for families.

- Establishing a consistent cost of living indicator, which can be used in both social housing rent calculations and the income support program.

- Developing consistent definitions of income between the two programs

- Developing a process where social housing construction and maintenance can be used as one of the income support program's productive choices

In order to allow government attention to focus on developing these opportunities for the benefit of both future governments, it has been decided there will be no further rent increases to social housing tenants prior to division. I am also pleased to announce an extension to the Rent Rebate Program.

--Applause

My colleague, the Honourable Charles Dent, and I look forward to the opportunity to further integrate two of the government's most important social programs. This is absolutely essential. The work, to be jointly done by the NWT Housing Corporation and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, will set a vital framework for future social program implementation for the two new governments in 1999.

Mr. Speaker, when the social housing rent scale was put into effect in 1995, it was intended to bring rents in line across the NWT in all communities. The rent scale has had the desired effect in urging more families to consider the home ownership options offered by the NWT Housing Corporation. The Corporation now gets well over 1,000 home ownership applications annually.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the government's decision to defer further rent increases until this vital work is completed, demonstrates that we have heard the messages being given by the communities, tenants and many of my fellow MLAs that housing and income support programs need to work more closely together to benefit our citizens. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause