Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we do have unique challenges in small communities and we also realize that the cost of living is a lot higher and that the clients in most cases have minimum wages in the $50,000 range. In regard to construction of a lot of these units where you have to bring them in through the winter road or by barge, there is a higher transportation cost associated with that. We take that into consideration.
Like I stated last week, this program was designed to get people out of public housing and into home ownership, and a lot of those people are in the bracket range of $45,000 to $50,000. In order to assist them with acquiring a $300,000 or $250,000 home, there will be a subsidy associated with it. The subsidy is not actually money that's going into the individual's pockets. It's a subsidy that is based on depreciation over 15 years of a mortgage in which it declines every year. You have to live in that unit for 15 years, pay down the portion of whatever you borrowed from the bank, but also realize that the forgiveness is based on a 15-year period. If you sold your house before the 15 years or you gave up the mortgage, the second mortgage is still held by the Housing Corporation. We still have an interest in it. I think that's an important component that hasn't been explained here.
For communities, we realize there's a high cost associated with getting people out of public housing and also the cost of financing it. We also have to realize that to keep people in public housing for a life period of...Say one of our housing units costs us about $1 million just to keep somebody in public housing. By making an investment of $50,000 or $60,000 to help these people get into home ownership is a benefit to ourselves as government to encourage people to get out of public housing and get into home ownership. Hopefully that explains the Member's question. Thank you, Madam Speaker.