Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In short, I will be supporting this motion as it goes forward.

The lack of quality housing is a challenge in the North and when we make it completely unaffordable, the ground is never stable for a family. If you talk to all the housing experts out there, they’ll say that a good, solid home...An unaffordable home is one of the primary problems where problems at home start. They can’t afford to be there and all of a sudden it creates a ripple effect into other issues. It’s just an endless spiral.

I’m not convinced that if we move from 30 percent to 25 percent on the assessment that it’s going to kill this government. If anything, this may stabilize

some of the arrears and help the adequacy and affordability of that type of housing. If anything, we’ll be giving people more of a leg up in the process of life as opposed to pushing them down.

In short, again, I will be supporting this motion and I think the government should do a serious analysis on not just how much money it may cost us, but how much money it could cost us in the long run for not providing able, adequate housing at an affordable price to our constituents and people of the North because of the ripple effects it creates through social problems.