Thank you. President, Dave Murray.

Thank You, Mr. Chairman. Actually, the whole initiation of the western Arctic affirmative action plan came out of recommendations and discussions at the Standing Committee on Social Programs last fall where there was concern that the corporation was not, perhaps, doing as much in the western Arctic as it might have been doing in other places. Therefore, we put together a plan, financed in-house and we have actually created now five positions, three of which are going to provide opportunities for people in-house to move up in the organization by getting training in a higher position and that will allow us to backfill their jobs at the appropriate time. We have two new employees of the corporation from outside. That means there are training opportunities primarily through to April 1999, when we will be able to reassess long-term employment potential as a result of the new territories being created. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Was there an indication that those two new positions are already filled or will there be an opportunity for people to apply on them?

Thank you. Mr. Murray.

I am positive one of them is filled but I am not sure about the second one. I would have to check.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Mr. Chairman, I have no further questions in this area, but I would, once again, like to indicate the fact that this is a very good step and I am pleased to see it. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Arlooktoo, would you like to respond to that? I am sorry about that.

Just to indicate that the corporation did receive good support and advice on this from the Member and we will continue to work with the committees on this type of initiative. Thank you.

Thank you. Under contribution, headquarters, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In reference to the requirements for 4,300 homes, apologies, this information has already been given out, but as a refresher, is there a breakdown as to where these homes are required? I know the majority, or a lot would be in the east, but can we get a better breakdown on that?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we have provided the information to the committees and to all the Members, both in overall numbers, I believe, and the community-by-community breakdown on what is needed in that community. The additional reports that we issued, after the need's survey was completed, were an action plan to help the community work with the Housing Corporation on how to deal with that need, possible ways of dealing with that shortfall.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is fine that the Members may know what the numbers are but I would like the public to know. Do you have the information or not? Is that not available today?

Thank you. It is a bit detailed information. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All the LHOs have received them and all the MLAs have received copies. This was this past summer when we made a big deal of it and they were working on it. We gave them out in August. Then I made a further Minister's statement in the fall session of what had been done. We can dig out further copies and pass them to Members who want it. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason for my question and my comments is that a lot of the times, this information does not get out to the overall public and I think it is wise and prudent if we can get it out through this avenue. My next question is in regard to the increase in the number of units from, I believe about a few years ago when I was with the corporation, the number that we had was somewhere between 3,000-3,500 homes that were required. Now we are at 4,600 and the birth rates and so on are factors. Are there other factors that are causing this increase? Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On that other information, also, it is available on the Internet in our website and we can certainly give the world wide web address to those who are interested. It is www.something.

--Laughter

In terms of the factors that drive the need, population growth, new birth is certainly one thing. Another is certainly the young age that our people in the communities are having their families and once you have young couples or young single mothers at the age of 14, 15 and 16. They can only, for so long, live with their parents, and at a point, they will require their own housing. There is discussion on this in the information that we have provided, but those are some of the other factors.

Thank you. Mr. O'Brien, are you okay? Thank you. Qujannamiik. Mr. O'Brien please indicate by raising your hand if you want to continue. Thank you. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In reference to Mr. Arlooktoo's comments about this information being available on

the Internet, I am sure that if he can provide most of the constituents in the east with a computer and get them hooked up to the Internet, they would be glad to surf it. Thank you.