Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak about an issue that has reached and stayed at a crisis proportion for the last few years in Yellowknife. It has to do with the lack of affordable housing and land for development. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the media I heard in horror the confirmation of what many of us have suspected all along, which is that the price of an average home in the city has jumped by 40 percent over the last year, from $151,000 in January of 2002 to more than $212,000 in January of 2003. A number like this should not go unnoticed by this government, Mr. Speaker. People are suffering with prices like this in the city, whether they be seniors, low income people or everyday working people, Mr. Speaker. The people who talk to me are especially puzzled by the lack of action taken by this government to alleviate this glaring problem.
Mr. Speaker, to address this question, the idea of legislating rent control has been bandied about in and out of this House. I appreciate this speaks to the frustration of many who have had to face the skyrocketing rent increases, but I don't believe that enacting such legislation to apply to all of the NWT to address the needs of a few heated markets is desirable at this time. It was not too long ago, Mr. Speaker, although it's hard for us to believe now, that land owners in the city had to offer all kinds of incentives to attract and keep tenants in their rental property. Studies we have seen have shown that legislated rent control would have long-term consequences in stifling land and property development. That must be undertaken by private development.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that the government still has a duty to take action in order to mitigate the extreme ups and downs in a timely and effective manner. The latest changes to the NWT Housing Corporation's loan guarantee program is one step forward, but that's not enough, Mr. Speaker. What we desperately need is an urgently proactive action on the part of this government to work with the city to make more land available for houses and apartments to be built on. The market is ready to respond and there are developers ready and willing to invest. We need this government to work with the city to streamline the process for making land development available and make it easier and economical to develop the land. I ask the government to act on this now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause