Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few general comments. I like the idea of the EDAP program. It allows people to get into units a lot younger than they would normally in the rest of Canada. The old HAP units that they used to have, everything was supplied and they were supposed to supply the labour. Then they started applying for funding, so it ended up that they didn't have any money being put into it and the corporation isn't recovering any money out of that. With the EDAP program, they seem to be recovering some of the money that they are getting.

We made a comment before about the maintenance being poor with some of these units and the mould and everything. Having worked in maintenance, I sort of take offence to that. There is still a soft spot for all the maintenance boys who used to crawl around and thaw out frozen sewage tanks. A lot of these houses were hard to maintain because they were so flippin' old. One particular set of units we tried renovating, then and we started taking them apart and we found out it was the third renovation they were going through. I believe there were nine of them written off in Aklavik and they are being replaced.

I applaud the corporation for trying to make a go to supply market housing for people who are coming into the communities. I don't know if it should be in the corporation mandate or in the respective employers such as Health and Social Services or Education for teachers. I do applaud you for trying to fill a need, but I don't think that should be your mandate.

I made a statement the other day, saying I believe housing should stick to its original mandate to provide public and affordable housing. I really like the EDAP program. You still will recover some money out of it. The potential owners will still put a lot of their own money into it. They will have to pay for it.

We used to have an old program called the R and R program. I don't know if you are familiar with that. It was the Rural and Remote Program. There was this one particular lady in Aklavik who paid faithfully on her mortgage for 25 years, but halfway through the 25 years, a new program came out where everything was supplied. So we tried to get her mortgage forgiven because so many loans were being forgiven; we thought it could work for her, but it didn't. She ended up paying quite a bit of money.

With the trailers, you get the trailers from down south. I realize stick-built would be a bit more expensive going into the communities and trying to put in market housing, but they would provide contracts for local contractors and put some of the local people to work, so the money would stay here.

Apartments or townhouses might be a better idea where you have central heating, central water, central sewage, especially in some of the smaller communities.

Those are all the comments I have for now, Madam Chair. Thanks a lot.