Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I too will support this motion. I have a few reasons for wanting to see a program like this go. The main one is that I think we should focus on getting elders’ homes fixed, because of some of the things that Mr. Menicoche talked about. Mainly because in the small communities they do have fixed incomes and they can’t afford to fix their house. Even individuals that are working and would be considered working poor, actually have more income than most of the seniors who are living off of old age security.

The other thing is if we don’t address the issue of the seniors, and we’re not addressing it quickly enough with the CARE program, which they are eligible for but not frequent enough or there’s not as many CARE programs given out to the elders. I’m of the belief that all elders who have homes that they have to maintain their homes should be kept up to date and programs should be put in place to do that to ensure that their houses don’t fall beyond economical repair.

Just the whole idea of houses falling behind economic repair and the ramifications of that is quite something, actually. If a unit falls beyond economical repair, meaning that it’s costing more than 75 percent of the full value of the replacement of that unit, the government won’t put money into it.

It just doesn’t make sense to because it’s beyond economic repair. But the senior will not move. So we have the option of having the senior either at one point saying the house is so poor that we’re going to have to build you a new house, which is going to be expensive; or we’re going to put you in residential care, which is going to be more expensive; or let the senior live in a dilapidated house. Those are the options as I see it.

If we put this program in place I think we will save these homes. We’ll save the government a lot of money in the future. And we will also make the first little move towards trying to develop markets in small communities, because markets in small communities would make it possible for the seniors to actually put money into their own home, their own money, because when there’s a market then that is considered equity as opposed to a non-market community where you can’t really accumulate equity.

I think elders owning their own home, that in general is something that is very good for this government. It’s economical for us as well. A lot of times the elders, as they get older, instead of moving into residential care they have somebody move in with them. So it’s always good to have a good unit for that to happen.

I’ll support the motion. I’m very pleased that the MLA for Nahendeh brought this motion forward. I look forward to the vote.