Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA would be prepared to respond, or we are open to requests from the municipalities for extraordinary funding, which we may be able to use that process or that program in order to assist with immediate requests from tax-based municipalities. However, that is not a large fund that MACA has. To go over and above that funding would require us to go to FMB. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is not just something that is right now at the doorstep here in Yellowknife and Inuvik. I think with the kind of development we are anticipating across the NWT, this will be something other communities will also face.

Has the department done any kind of scan or forecast of the kind of pressures that will be under in other communities as development proceeds? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I believe I said before, MACA has a budget and a program in place for non-taxed based communities, to assist them with land development, including land development in response to economic development activity within the region. We do not have the ability at this point to apply this program to tax-based communities. At this point, I am not able to give the Member any figure that I could offer him as to how I can assist tax-based communities under this program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a related area, we must also as a government not only look at satisfying the demands that are at our doorstep today, but looking ahead to the future, we are making sure we can maintain this kind of infrastructure.

Is the government prepared to look at shortfalls that the city of Yellowknife has today with its Infrastructure Replacement Program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA has put the request to the tax-based communities to identify their long-term needs for replacement of water and sewage facilities.

Once we have those figures from the different communities, we can then put together a program as to how we can continue to assist the communities over and above what we have at this time, ongoing with the feds.

We are waiting for a response from the tax-based communities on their long-term needs for water and sewage facilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral question. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question again goes to the Minister for Housing, regarding the critical shortage of affordable housing and lots in the city of Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister is aware in the budget that the government has announced some relief programs. It says here on page 14: "The GNWT intends to help the private sector to respond to the demand for affordable rental accommodation in non-tax-based communities." The whole half of this housing initiative -- actually, it is a very small section, but all of it has to do with non-tax-based.

I want to know, Mr. Speaker, what is his plan for tax-based communities, to help them with their housing shortages?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was once asked what was my vision of the NWT Housing Corporation, and I said that we want to develop parity in home ownership across the Northwest Territories and we cannot discriminate against a taxed or non-tax-based municipality. Thus, I want to inform the Member that we have given full consideration to introducing EDAP, the Extended Down Payment Assistance Program, into the city of Yellowknife as a measure to overcome some of the housing shortages and the major impacts. Again, it is raised in the context of those who are at the top end of a public housing scale and we need to move them into some form of home ownership. That is one of the key areas we are currently exploring.

I just have not had a chance to introduce that as yet. I am prepared to do that in the new fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

How about, Mr. Speaker, for the fact that the cost of developing lots in Yellowknife is so expensive that any of the existing lots would cost upwards of $80,000? If there are any houses built on those lots, the housing prices will be above $300,000 and not eligible for CMHC mortgage. Most people cannot afford a $300,000 house. Has the Minister given any consideration to that predicament in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to go back into a bit of the history here, because back in June of last spring, we had met with the city, where they acknowledged that there was a land cost crunch. Thus, we have begun a process of communicating through MACA and the NWT Housing Corporation to see, because under the Housing Corporation Act, we can assist in the land development costs.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, it is still an ongoing evaluation and hopefully, we can come to some form of conclusion in the new fiscal year. We understand the type of investment we need to make in the context of EDAP, IHP or other affordable housing initiatives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, down payment assistance for low-income families -- I guess there is room for that, but that is not going to do anything for the fact that developers are not willing to develop lots in Yellowknife because it just does not pay to do so.

This has been a problem for a long, long time. Why is it that the Minister is saying he is working on it and we just have to hang on and wait until he has decided that he has done it? Does he not see that this is a very crucial emergency, an imminent problem? Has he not come to that realization, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to extrapolate a sentence that I should have used in my preamble:

The NWT Housing Corporation recognizes its role in providing affordable, social rental housing and home ownership options, as well as assisting with the development of private housing markets.

Mr. Speaker, we have been in consultation with the developers. We understand the predicament they are in. So are we. The cost of developing housing in the city of Yellowknife specific to land only almost exceeds the cost of putting a house on the ground. The less we are required to evaluate the cost of land, the cost of the house is the overall....it is true. That is where we are having problems with some of our clients falling through the cracks because they cannot afford to maintain that household, even though we can give them a fairly good subsidy.

I wanted to let the Member know that we have looked at all the possibilities. We still need to finish off evaluating the balance of the problems. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Minister should be aware that the time for evaluation is quickly running out. I think he has to admit that he is not going to do anything for the next fiscal year, because there is nothing in this budget that would do anything for tax-based communities. It says right here, all these programs are for non-tax based. So has he not already made a decision that he is not going to do anything for Yellowknife?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Allen.