Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just in case the Member doesn't understand, I have been here for 10 years and housing is probably one of the biggest priorities for myself and also the ridings that represent the challenges are not just unique to my riding or the Member's riding through the Northwest Territories. The challenge we have is a national crisis right across Canada. What we are doing here is to change the mandate to the corporation, is to find a mechanism that we are able to deliver 185 houses, being able to deliver 500 houses over three years. But in realizing that, in 1992, the federal government, through the CMHC, made a decision to get out of building social housing. It is a national problem which is this crisis we have today. That is where it originated from.

I think it is important to realize that, through this consensus style of government we have, we have to work together to find solutions to these problems. I think that, yes, I have come to committee. I have met with the federal Minister. But it is part of the process that we go through. I am not going to say that I didn't make an attempt to go to committee, because I have. I have gone there. I wrote a letter back in October 24th. I did not get an allowance or time to meet with them until the first week of December. I think it is important for the public to realize that happens a lot in this House. We do have to go through a process. The process is a formal process to request to sit down with committee and time to be slotted for our briefings. I just want to make sure that we basically got direction back from the Premier that, because of concerns of members of the AOC, the mandate process will be dissolved to a committee which will consist of people from FMB, the Executive and ourselves, which will go out, get public consultation and then come back, which I will not be involved with to keep it at hand's length from myself and also from the department. I think the decision was made in the context that we're asking for 20 positions. Those positions, as far as I feel, are crucial to us being delivered the 500 houses over the next three years. Everybody knows we have some major challenges by way of land deliveries, by way of comments made in Members' statements about market housing, the challenges that we face there. That was 45 houses. I think the whole area of inspections on our units, how come we don't have people doing ongoing inspections when we are constructing our units? Again, we have only one lands officer in the whole department. In order to put down 185 houses, we need 185 lots. So I think the scope of this problem is a lot bigger than we believe. I think Members have to realize that the Housing Corporation, when I came to this House in 1995, had 195 positions. Today, they have just a little under 100. They have almost cut themselves in half since pre-division; and then division, we had 144. I think the scope of this problem, because we have allowed it to erode to where it is today, the challenges are there. A motion was passed in this House. In order to meet the 10 percent reductions to bring our core needs down by 2007, we have to put houses on the ground in order to make a difference in people's lives. I just wanted to make that reference. But I think it has to be made clear here that I have been meeting with the opposition's Members, Jack Layton. Jack Layton is elected again in the House. My former colleague, Mr. Joe Fontana, was the Minister of Housing, is now back in the House of Commons, and also the Prime Minister of Canada, who made a crucial difference in regards to the conference in the Kelowna meeting with the aboriginal conference that took place. Again, these people are all elected back to the House of Commons. I don't think that they will let go of something they've worked on by securing a funding for housing but also securing funding for First Nations people in this country. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will leave it at that.