Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in case the Members on the other side hadn't noticed yet, we are having a cleaning day today on housing.

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Mr. Speaker, I would like to read into the record the mandate of the NWT Housing Corporation. The mandate of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation is to assist communities to assume the role of providing housing to their residents and to sustain northern economic development. This is achieved by providing leadership and support to communities in the areas of technical research and services, financial support, information sharing, training, as well as economic development initiatives.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know when the last time this mandate or this vision statement for the Housing Corporation was visited, but I think it needs to be looked at. I think that these things that are listed here, you could reasonably say are at cross purposes with each other. We are talking about a social program to provide people with accommodation and we are also talking about ways of making money and promoting economic development. There may be some overlap, but I do think that this mandate is perhaps somewhat deceiving.

It brings out a point though with respect to the reference to assisting communities to assume. I think everyone knows that in the Northwest Territories we have very diverse communities with very diverse lifestyles. When I say diverse communities, some are remote, some are on road systems, some have very traditional lifestyles and some not. Some have market properties available on a rental basis, some do not, where primarily the landlord is the NWT Housing Corporation. So, Mr. Speaker, I think we need to look at the mandate, we do need to provide communities with the opportunity to develop policies and programs which are tailored to the residents of that community. I don't think that there is a one-size-fits-all in terms of programming, and I would like to see more responsibility devolve to the communities so that we can get maximum use of our resource in this area to meet the needs of the people. I could say a lot more about housing, Mr. Speaker, but this is a short opportunity. I look forward to asking the Minister some questions later today. Thank you.