Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member is quite correct; that we have to start looking around for what is available in terms of options, and we have to start seriously looking at ways to increase our revenues if we are planning to maintain our stock.

The flat rent scenario would certainly allow us to increase our revenues as it is based on the number of rooms within the dwelling, and the rent is based on the number of rooms. However, our concern is that it may allow for the increase of the rental payments of rent charged to increase over and above the 30 percent household income threshold that we've set, and it would create a real hardship for the lower income families and the larger families, and it would also cause concern and complications for seniors.

Mr. Allen also referred to the mortgage insurance. There has been no response on this issue. We have had correspondence with the federal Minister, Andy Scott. We have not been able to come to any type of conclusion on this mortgage insurance, we will continue to follow it up. I also agree with Mr. Allen that the market economy should be dealing with a lot of the issues that we are currently facing. However, in the smaller communities when it comes to market units available for rent, the concept of supply and demand is not taking place. We are not seeing a lot of investment in the area of market housing for rental units. We are probably for the most part at zero vacancy for a lot of these communities.

I also believe Mr. Allen referred to the zero down payment program introduced by the CMHC. It's a program that is new. It is not in place yet. It will come into effect April 1st, 2004, and although it's offered by CMHC it is administered through financial institutions such as banks. I don't know if we have a very big part of a very big role in this whole concept. To access a program, a client or an applicant has to deal with a bank or another financial institution. The requirements to obtain this program for a mortgage with no down payment, an applicant must have a number of things. First, they must have a strong credit rating and income sufficient to cover monthly payments. A CMHC

premium of 3.4 percent is added to the mortgage and calculated into the monthly rent. This program is only intended to be used on fixed-rate mortgages because other programs with a variable rate require 10 percent down. So this program is for fixed-rate mortgages and the banks and other financial institutions do have the information. We have, in response to this program, adjusted our EDAP scales to accommodate this program and it will be in place April 1st.