Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, income support programs are designed with a productive choice element in it and we will support individuals to go back to work when they are on income support. With the low income families, working families, there's an opportunity to earn income up to $3,833 a month and they will not be penalized. They will be given the incentive to have their rent reduced, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently the clients on income support in actual reality don't pay rent. If a student now has to pay rent, it doesn't make sense. How much would a student be paying? In reality, we are trying to encourage people to go back to school and we are trying to encourage them to go to work, but we will be affecting them negatively because we will start increasing their rent. Isn't that right?

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if a student is in public housing, at the present time they would pay $32 a month depending on their income, but they would be at $32 a month. We are proposing that that be reduced to $20 a month, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am being told by some of the students who are in the different campuses that that isn't the fact. In actuality, if you are from Fort Providence and you are at Thebacha Campus, for example, you would be paying $300 a month for an apartment, but now you will also have to pay, based on your income, a portion of what you earn from student financial assistance for your house in Fort Providence. So we are double billing them. Is that what's happening here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't speak for the Housing Corporation on this, Mr. Speaker, but students in student housing pay according to the college rate. That is not public housing, nor is it considered public housing in the same fashion, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wanted to ask the Minister regarding his comments about the seniors' cap. Any seniors that are turning the age where they would be considered senior by public housing, after the grace period, will have to pay full rent. So it could be in excess of $400, not capped at $400 as stated in the plan.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the plans are that seniors and students would be grandfathered and they would see a change in their rent, depending upon their income. If they have high incomes, they can be paying up to $200 a month, but that is capped for the first year and that will change by $50 per year until the total amount of $400 is reached and it will stay at that. That is our proposal, Mr. Speaker. About 75 percent of seniors we look at will pay less than $100, with the majority being at $20, Mr. Speaker.

Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to my Member's statement earlier about the lack of affordable housing, which I believe stems from lack of land available for developers to build on, we are also aware of the fact that the city government is doing all it can to address all these increased needs, but the cost of developing land is becoming more and more prohibitive. My question is addressed to the Minister of MACA. Could the Minister advise what actions he has taken as Minister to see what he can do to help the city government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past year, the activity that MACA has undertaken in relation to lot development is only relative in non-tax-based communities. The understanding we have and the policy we have for tax-based communities is that tax-based communities develop their own lots in their communities. We don't assist them. Thank you.

Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's the problem that we have been facing in this Legislature. The Members from the city and tax-based communities raise this issue over and over and ask the Cabinet to take action on it, and they come back with something for non-tax-based and nothing for the tax-based communities. The Minister is aware, as well as anyone else, that even the city government of Yellowknife cannot deal with the cost of developing lots. They are having a hard time with Niven Lake. Isn't that the Minister's responsibility to look at the situation and see what he can do? Can the Minister answer that, please?

Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the only program that I am aware of that MACA or the territorial government has to assist tax-based communities, and the only one that has been actually created in the past to assist tax-based communities, is the ability for tax-based communities to apply for a loan to develop their own lots. I believe it's called a debenture. This government supports that, but that is the only program that I am aware of. I haven't been, as a department, asked to assist specific tax-based communities in developing their lots. We left it up to them to do their own planning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe it's entirely true that nobody has asked him for help to assist with the cost of developing land in tax-based communities, Mr. Speaker. It's this kind of nonchalance about what's going on in Yellowknife that's driving people in Yellowknife crazy.

---Laughter

Everybody points out to me, Mr. Speaker, every resident in Yellowknife brings in $17,000 or more in transfer payments. Every family that we bring in to Yellowknife brings in money to be spent in the rest of the Territories. So why is there such a nonchalance and pooh-poohing about what's going on in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Interjection

Excuse me, could I have some order in the House? It's hard for the Minister to hear the question. Have some courtesy for your colleagues. Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.