Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the Members of this House are aware that this is an issue that causes great concern to myself and all the people in my riding. A lot of people have said that rents are going to go down. What about the people that will benefit from this program?

Well, I haven't been able to point a finger to anybody in my riding that is going to see their rent go down more than $20.00. In fact, everybody is going to see an increase. This whole program is not only about income support and housing, it is about anybody and everybody in public housing. Mr. Krutko raises a good point, that it is going to cause undue hardship to the single parents in the communities because, from now on, we will see all income rolled into the assessment. Child support payments, that are being received by some of the mothers, including some of the fathers, will now be calculated. Child maintenance payments, child benefits, something that we are trying to improve the quality of life, we are trying to eliminate poverty. We are giving it with one hand and now we are going to take it back with the other. It really doesn't make any sense.

The programs are not consistent. They are running head on into each other and that affects all the single parents in the communities. The income tax payments are now going to be clawed back, they are going to be forced to pay a portion on them. That is going to draw a huge spike in income. So we are going to have to be chasing all tenants in social housing on a monthly basis. I can't believe that this government can sit there and say it's not going to cost us any more money because we right now have calculated everything under the sun, even honoraria, that some of the parents and some of the people that live in housing are collecting will be taxed, and clawed back. Babysitting money will be clawed back. That is just unrealistic and it goes too far. Where is the line drawn?

I think this whole initiative has been derailed; the Cabinet is just refusing to look at reality. They don't want to be seen as backing down. They don't want to be seen as making a decision that will make them look like they made a wrong uninformed move at the outset. We have to really take a good look at this. We don't know what the effects are going to be. We are, in a sense, going to be forcing everybody, especially the single parents, onto income support. We won't have any alternatives in our communities. We won't have all the different programs that the larger centers have; we don't have that benefit. We only have social housing. So, Mr. Speaker, I would like to encourage my colleagues to support this initiative and if anybody needs assistance, it is the single parents and I'm going to be supporting this motion. Thank you.