Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, the Honourable Robert C. McLeod. Since 1996 a policy came into place in this government where seniors living in public housing over the age of 60 would pay zero rent. I believe the initial intent of this was to target seniors in small, remote communities where people in the housing units had not ever been involved in the wage economy, had come more from a traditional economy, but in the government’s wisdom decided to apply it to every community and every senior living in public housing regardless of means or income. Now we are being forced to revisit that very, very generous program.

I would like to ask the Minister, as a result of the consultation with some of the seniors by MLAs, the complaint has come forward that seniors were not adequately consulted on this change. I would like to ask the Minister what efforts were undertaken by the Housing Corporation to ensure that seniors

were consulted before the implementation of this new policy.