Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the benefits of our booming economy is that people never had a chance for many years to have year-round employment. That means people who only could work seasonally, or on and off, now have the opportunity for great paying jobs. But there are a lot of people whose economic circumstances keep them handcuffed from moving forward. Many people owe a lot of money to our local housing authorities and whatnot because of their circumstances from years before, such as unemployment and, again, seasonal work.
Mr. Speaker, now that they have jobs, in some particular cases, if they are in housing authorities, rents have drastically skyrocketed and it gives these people a very difficult chance to pay back some of these arrears. In many cases, they were not getting back the arrears. Mr. Speaker, the point that I am raising is many people can afford mortgages out there to get homes, but they need the assistance to bridge that opportunity. They cannot qualify at this time for mortgages through our NWT Housing Corporation because they owe money. Simply, they are excluded because they have owed money from before, and we are not finding ways to work with them.
Mr. Speaker, in some cases, I can assure you personally that I know that rent is higher than what they would probably pay in a mortgage. What are we doing? We need a program that is flexible that will work with the people. We need a program and a policy that will go forward to help them purchase their houses, if that is the case and the direction that they want to go and need to go. We need a program that adjusts with the times.
Mr. Speaker, if you owe money from the past to a local housing authority, you can't even get on the list to qualify for social housing. We need to find a way that helps bridge payments and opportunity together. Mr. Speaker, this government needs to do something to help assist the way arrears flow into the government because, as it stands right now, the money is not flooding in.
Mr. Speaker, let's help the people who want to help themselves. That is the bottom line. That is why we are here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time.