Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in favour of this motion as a seconder of this motion. Mr. Speaker in three weeks, unless something is done to rethink this or defer this or change this in a drastic way, this will become a new rule for the government and I realized that when this was introduced and the details of it, that it will benefit some people. It will benefit two-thirds or more of the people out there who are under this program, but I think we cannot ignore the situations that the rest of the people will face with this new rule.

Mr. Speaker, I am aware that whenever we do change the rules there are some who fall between the gaps but I think that I cannot ignore the fact that a difference of $500 to $1,000 is a big jump for those who cannot afford it. When I was briefed about this policy, I was assured that the gap, the biggest increase would be no more than $200 and that those increases will be phased in and now the information that I'm getting is that might not be the case. I have to be concerned about that, Mr. Speaker.

As I sit here and listen to the debates going back and forth, two things come to mind. One is that I have never seen a policy with this much discord, this close to implementation. I think that that has to give us something to reflect upon. You know, we are a consensus government and perhaps if we had a different sort of government, government as a majority, it could pursue policies that they believe are right and that are in line with their political philosophy or the political platform that they ran on. That is not the kind of government we have here. The rule that we follow is that there has to be some general consensus that this is the right thing to do and I don't see that happening, Mr. Speaker. I have to be concerned about it.

The other thing is something about this really reminds me of the federal gun law legislation. I think somebody, you know, sitting in Toronto decided guns are a bad thing, and we've got to get them registered, and that should not be a problem. Well I don't think that they ever knew what a big part of life guns are to some people in Canada. It's only when they started going out and counting them, that they realized they were way behind in terms of how to implement it, having the people to do it, what people use it for and we know the sorry story of that.

Mr. Speaker, I think this may put into question the whole notion of what people think of as an income, how people use social housing in our communities. I'm starting to get phone calls from people in the communities to tell me that this has to be relooked at. People in the communities are saying what can we do to change the government's mind. I stated on Friday that I might be the only riding without social housing, but I cannot ignore it when I get calls from people who are genuinely concerned about what this means. If this is a really good policy, the government should be able to convince the Members, and Members should be able to go out there and be able to explain the pros and cons of this and be able to explain the net benefit of this. I don't see that, and that is a concern to me.

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned on Friday, that I don't have any direct communication from my constituents but I have been privy to communication from single mothers in the city who are going to see their rent go up by hundreds of dollars in a month. I don't need to state again, that every $50 or $100 in the pocket of single mother with four kids, who has to budget every cent, that's a big thing. I simply want to get the Ministers and the Cabinet to reconsider that and work out what is the impact of this, how will it be implemented, what it means for one category of single mothers, and others who are in income support and who's not, ones who are in social housing and who's not.

We have already seen different categories of senior citizens, those who move in or who has been there forever, who are there already. They are not going to be impacted because they are going to be grandfathered. Those who move in April 1st will be treated differently. Maybe this was a bigger thing than the government thought it was, maybe it is not as simple as the government thought it was. I am prepared to be convinced of that, Mr. Speaker, but I know that having been in the shoes and having argued on my point, it is a very frustrating thing when you can't get your questions answered. So, for that and all the reasons that I've stated, I am in favour of this motion and I am pleased to be seconding it again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.