Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to point out to the Member that we were in the process of making changes to the NWT Housing Corporation Act by way of the mandate process. We were hoping that by making those changes in the mandate, it would allow us to change the act itself. We were in the process of doing that. In the process, we were also looking at changing the programs and services as we deliver right now. As I mentioned, we deliver something like 19 programs. We were hoping to consolidate them down to five areas. Again, that was something that we were working on going forward. That presentation was given to committee.
Mr. Speaker, also as part of the program evaluation, we were also looking at putting an appeals board in place, so people could appeal decisions with regard to applications that they did not feel comfortable with or they did not like the decision that was made. Again, the Member is right; we do have an act which was in place since 1994, which is over 30 years old. A lot has happened in that period of time. I think we have to realize as a corporation, in 1995 when we were part of Nunavut, we had 190 PYs running housing programs throughout Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Today we have 98 positions within the government. We lost almost 100 PYs on programs and services through budget cuts and program services being delivered.
I think with regard to Members' comments about why different programs and services that are delivered in different centres throughout the Northwest Territories, larger centres or communities. I think you can answer that question simply by looking at market communities and non-market communities. There are no markets in a lot of those communities and in a lot of communities, we don't have the human resources or expertise locally where we depend on people from outside the communities, either regional centres or territorial centres to provide the manpower that's needed to construct a lot of these houses in a lot of communities. So it adds extra costs to these projects that has an effect on being able to deliver these programs and services. The biggest challenge is the logistical challenge that's in place.