Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement is on the Local Housing Subsidy Program. Several sessions ago we gave the government instructions to review the Public Housing Subsidy Program, because since transferring administration from local housing organizations to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment there has been some serious problems on the delivery of the program.

Years ago when the government was first considering transferring the administration to ECE, many local housing organizations told the local government what the real problem was, and that was that the local housing authorities did not have the adequate resources to properly administer the programs. Mr. Speaker, however, the government is convinced that only the Department of ECE can properly run the program.

Over the years my constituents have expressed concerns with the way the public housing rental subsidy has been administered. Francis Wolki has

been very vocal with her community and how it has affected these changes. She’s concerned with the people who have been in the same houses for years, never giving their LHOs any problems and recently getting letters of eviction.

Mr. Speaker, our region has a petition circulating to review all the regional leadership, urging all MLAs to work aggressively with this government to develop a solution to these issues. Housing is a core responsibility of the government. However, I expressed previously, recently developments of the government seem to contradict this principle. The housing conditions or the program implementation, especially for small and remote communities, has been in a crisis situation for quite some time. The recent changes of the Income Support Policy in relation to the community housing support has only created a worsening situation. The housing conditions in small communities such as Paulatuk are facing serious problems that the government must address.

Mr. Speaker, I urge this government to transfer the administration of the Public Housing Subsidy Program back to local housing authorities, with adequate resources to properly administer the program. Local governments know their communities’ issues best.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.