Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm in support of this motion as well, and I will speak briefly to one of the points, a whereas in the motion.

And whereas there are individuals and families who can no longer access programs and services of the NWT Housing Corporation because of previous rental and mortgage obligations to the Housing Corporation and there is a need to provide adequate shelter for these people...Mr. Speaker, just because people run into difficulties with the units that they are buying or renting does not negate the fact that they are still NWT residents in need of housing support, and this is where I think the policies of the NWT Housing Corporation need to be looked at. One of the Members today asked when was the rent scale revisited; well, the rent scale was changed not that long ago and as a result of that really substantive change to the way the rent scale was set up, rather than having standard rates for rent it was all based on household income and there are few realities in the North related to the way people live that make household income a really challenging way by which to charge rent.

It has nothing to do with the unit or the size of the unit. It has to do with household income and, in fact, in the Northwest Territories it is, I think, a cultural thing and a traditional thing quite often for extended families to live in the same location. It serves some purposes. For example, sometimes there are seniors who are benefited by having grown children live with them because of the requirement for some assistance in their living. In some cases it benefits with parenting for young adults who have children to live with grandparents in the fact that they may need to go to work at the mines and they need to have support for childcare. Just the concept of extended family

living is very common in the North, but our rent scale does nothing to recognize that. They just say household income, that's it. If you've got your son or daughter who is working and temporarily living with you, then the rent goes up and then if you don't pay, then the person whose lease the name is in will be penalized forever after as having arrears to the NWT Housing Corporation.

So there needs to be, in my opinion, more flexibility because there aren't a lot of private market options in a lot of the small communities for these people. If they are making reasonable wages and could rent something privately or buy something, I'm sure they would do it rather than pay rents to the Housing Corporation. In a lot of cases there just aren't many options. So I think we need to be very sensitive to the way that people live, traditional values and the realities of how people share accommodation in the Northwest Territories, and I don't think in the rent scale there is one ounce towards doing that. I just wanted to mention that. Housing is a very interesting topic and we could spend a lot of time talking about it, but I think this motion is good in terms of things it addresses and I look forward to seeing what the Minister will do with this department. I think he's got an open mind and some good ideas and I, so far, feel he is very receptive to working with us to improve the goals and the outcomes with the Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.