Mr. Chairman, there is no doubt that we have some major challenges on the housing front and this is one of them. On the positive side, if our economy stays strong, as it has been, then we are seeing more rent being paid. Right now, the rent being paid by clients in public housing is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200,000 to $300,000 more each year. Not as much as the federal government is reducing it by, but we are moving in the right direction.
If our economy is strong, we will be okay. We will continue along the track of getting into homeownership rather than
public housing, gradually decreasing that to those who are in extreme need of housing; that kind of housing, whether it's homeless, people without incomes and so on.
If the economy is not strong, then we have the same problem as some other jurisdictions, because this reduction by CMHC is about a $2 billion reduction across the country by 2037. So we aren't the only ones being hit. I think the only other option we have if the pipeline doesn't go ahead, we don't find a strong economy here, is to continue to join forces with the national aboriginal organizations, with the other provinces and territories and continue to lobby away at the federal government to put some housing money into the North. There isn't many other options for us. Thank you.