Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the motion, there are aspects of this motion that I question how thought out perhaps they are. At the same time, I think what this motion represents is a whole lot of frustration with the way the housing operates and with the programs and policies that they have in the communities; their lack of flexibility to deal with social housing clients. A lot of times when you talk about people who are working in industry and that, they really shouldn't be social housing clients necessarily, but this government needs to do more to figure out ways to get them into homeownership. I know the Housing Corporation has some programs that encourage homeownership, but I don't think it's enough. I think if you are paying the maximum rent and you are making that kind of money, I think it would be a much more advisable thing to put your money into your own home and into a mortgage rather than paying your rent to the NWT Housing Corporation.

When I say, Mr. Speaker, that there are some things about this motion that may not have been thought through as thoroughly as they should be, the number for the percentage of reduction is something that is fairly arbitrary. It's a number that we came up with, but I don't think it has with it the kind of financial analysis that needs to take place when we talk about the higher cost of living in the non-market communities, for example. I think there are ways of verifying that and perhaps coming up with something a little more thought out for a financial policy point of view.

Another ramification of lowering these rents as indicated in this motion is going to be that the local housing authorities are going to have less capital, less money to work with. What is that going to translate into? Is that going to translate into less workers to do the maintenance on the units? Is that going to result in job reductions in the communities? Unless this government has a whole lot more money to pour into housing that I am not aware of, I don't really know what all the spin-off effects are going to be of reducing the revenue to the Housing Corporation via the local housing authorities.

I support the concept of the motion. I think more detail has to be worked out. People, like I said, that are being tasked with $2,400 a month for rent in perhaps somewhat less than desirable accommodations should be helped with access to land. They should be helped with mortgage financing. There should be other complementary services that are made available that can encourage people to become homeowners. There is a lot of benefit to homeowners that are hard to necessarily quantify completely. Once people own their own home and invest more in that, I think they take better care of it. I think there is a lot of pride and self-sufficiency and feelings of independence which are very helpful for our people if they can get access to having their own home.

I think we need different approaches to different situations and different approaches in different communities, because I think the challenges are unique. I think this motion here represents a lot of frustration with what we did see in the pre-budget consultation visits to the communities. We saw houses that are in disrepair. The government should be ashamed of even collecting rents on some of these units, they are in such disrepair. I have not been convinced that the Housing Corporation has a good handle on what needs to be done in terms of maintenance, repairs and replacement, and perhaps tearing down in some instances. I have not had any communication yet that would convince me that the Housing Corporation has a good handle on what needs to be done with respect to the housing inventory that they are responsible for.

Like I said, this is a collage of a lot of different ways of saying the system is broke. We expect some action on it being fixed. I just wanted to say that I really resist and resent the idea that people living in our communities do not have access to homeownership. If they can find land, they should be shown the respect of being able to own their own home. If you don't have the ability to build the homes at the community level, then bring in manufactured homes. There are very nice, high-quality manufactured homes that can be brought in and set up on lots. People should not feel forced to be in social housing if it's their desire to be outside of that. So we have to think outside the box on this. We need to become more creative and ensure that the solutions are tailor made to the residents that this is intended to serve.

I will support the motion, but may I put the caveat on it, please, that when we talk about these reductions, that there be some correlation between the reduction and the cost of living in the community. There needs to be some further analysis made. Please, also, that the reduction in income to those housing authorities is well explained to us in terms of the impact they may have in lowering the level of service and lessening the number of jobs in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause