Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I don't want to reiterate a lot of the concerns that a lot of Members have already raised, and I am sure the Minister has heard them all before in committee, but I just want to talk about the $10 million for the upgrades and the $4.9 million for emergency, seniors and disabled housing. It's great to see that there is a little bit of increases going into these areas and that these programs are actually in place, but I just wanted to remind the Minister again, I am sure you heard it in many instances, a lot of emergency repairs and a lot of upgrades and a lot of senior repairs are approved every year in the various regions, but when it actually comes down to doing the actual work, doing the actual repair, that's not so quick to get approved or get done. I just got a few examples. I got a senior with the furnace that is still

sitting in his porch to get installed and it's been there for two years. So a senior with a fire damaged room in his house upstairs that has also been approved for repairs, but that's been two years ago also. I guess that just alludes to the point I want to make. It seems a lot of the contracts that go out for these repairs and the upgrades to the various units always seem to be going to a specific contractor who has had a long-standing history working with the Housing Corporation; and all other contractors, be it proprietorships or just individual people who are willing and able to do that work, are never really considered because of liability issues, they don't have their business licence in place and they don't have some of the insurance that the government requires and stuff like that. But there are a few that do. Five years ago, they maybe didn't complete a project or something like that and they seem to be blacklisted on the government's contracting list at the regional level anyway.

I have raised the issue with the Minister before on some people that are willing and able to do all this outstanding work that's still kind of out there in the communities, and people are still wondering why we have to wait for a contractor to come out of Yellowknife, or a contractor to come out of Hay River to complete the work. Well, one of the barriers to getting these contracts in the outlying communities, in the satellite communities where they're actually required is because the government is saying the contractor has to be within cost of what a contract is going to bid on. Pretty much there's a limit to what you can bid on this project, and whether you're in Hay River or Yellowknife or in Colville Lake, this is money that the government's willing to spend and that's that. Therefore, a lot of these smaller community contractors don't bother with bidding on this work, because basically it's not going to make them any money, it's not going to be cost effective for them. The costs in these communities are a lot higher than they are in the regional centres, but it seems to be the government policy that these contracts have to be within these larger centre cost barriers or brackets.

I just want to ask the Minister, is there any inclination that the government is going to relay down the line to tell the regional centres you have to be a little bit more flexible when it comes to very remote communities. These people that are trying to do business in those communities and trying to stay in those communities, especially when a lot of housing projects are just backed up to the door as far as getting completions done. Is there any appetite for that?