Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member has made a number of comments that I certainly agree with. We have to encourage homeownership in the communities. We have to try to look at stimulating a market in the community for rental units. We certainly agree with the concept of trying to encourage independence and homeownership. I think for the large part we can achieve that. We have to now put the tools in place to deal with the support for people that are interested, people that have employment, people that can afford to operate their own homes, to own the building that they are in if it is a public unit. If it just means helping somebody with access to bank financing, because of no credit rating or a poor credit rating, or low wages, it is something that we are totally committed to doing. Achieving independence in the communities by having their own homes is an important thing for families, and we would like to push that whole initiative forward.
The issue regarding Mr. Yakeleya's grandparents is something I can relate to. I've personally seen that firsthand. We have now put into place a new policy to deal with situations where we have long-time tenants of public housing units that are seniors and would like to purchase the house. We have a program in place that would allow them to do so, providing that they can prove that they can handle the operating costs of the unit, it is forgivable. Anybody over 70 we can look at a short term of forgiving the loan over a five-year period. So it is something that the seniors can take pride in, it is something that the seniors will call their own, and something that they can leave for their children or their grandchildren.
I also can relate to the comment about these market units, the intent or the recommendation that we should start looking at having something built in the North. I totally agree with that. I don't believe it is possible to do it this year, but for next year we want to see value-added units built here in the Northwest Territories so we can put a position for it for the committee to look at and talk about. It is something that we will target as part of our review at the end of this year. Once the units are up and set up, we will provide a report and we will also bring it forward to the committee along with what we would recommend on how to approach it for the next year. That is my response to Mr. Yakeleya.