Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I support the concept of the motion. There are some parts in here that I do support. Bringing the rent down from 32 to 18 percent, I mean we'd have to have a look at that.

I've always been a firm belief in independence and I'd like to see many public housing tenants become as independent as possible. Some of the housing programs they've had out over the years have been some fairly good programs, and who these programs, in my mind, were designed for. I always take exception when they talk about maintenance of units. I mean it doesn't apply to all LHOs. There are some LHOs out there that do a good job with what they have. They are continually asked to work on older units with less and less money, and some of the onus has to be on the local housing authorities and the districts. If it's the Housing Corporation, the head office job to go and monitor everything that's going on, then that's what they should be doing. But some of the onus has to be on the local housing authorities as far as rent collections go, the maintenance of the unit. It doesn't apply to everyone across the NWT. But I do support the concept of the motion. I will be voting in favour of the motion. The numbers I am kind of concerned about, and I always want to make the point when we speak on housing, in every community we go to we hear about the poor condition of units. But how much of that is Housing Corp, how much is the local housing authority? That's something we have to decide.

As more and more new units hit the ground it's a lot easier to maintain the new units, so you don't have too much trouble with those. It's just the old ones, and I've seen units that were built in 1972, in their third or fourth round of renovation. I tell you, Mr. Speaker, you're starting to feel like you're getting closed in because you're just constantly building in. So go from a three bedroom to a two bedroom.

So, Mr. Speaker, I will support this motion and the numbers concern me, but overall I think it's a good motion and I think we are acting on concerns that we've heard in our travels across the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause