Back in 1995–1996, the housing package, along with the VTAs that were in place, at that time tallied close to $30 million. In today’s environment I wouldn’t even speculate as to how high it’s gone from that area. We are looking at ways of trying to have development corporations, the private sector, get involved in the housing in those communities. We’re trying to find that option.
When it comes to collective agreements, if the roles participating, the negotiators for the unions, ask to discuss it, there’s no stopping us from having the discussion. The fact will come in as: can we afford anything of that nature?
We also have to also recognize the northern allowance was put in place to make up the difference and each community has different rates. Some communities have a substantial northern allowance rate to try to mitigate those higher costs.