Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have come a long way since the ‘70s when the federal government, at that time through the Indian agent, told many of my people in the Sahtu that if you move off the land and you move into a community, we will give you a house. We would also have you pay rent of $2 to $5 per month and that would be for a lifetime.

This was told through oral stories through my grandfathers and through the elders that I have talked to within the Sahtu communities and other communities. They say this story is what the federal government told. Today that story has gone out the window with the new rent policy, the threshold, the public housing, and people are having a hard time with the conditions of the houses they have now in our communities.

For example, in Deline they have nine units that are 42 years old and the condition of these units are not kept up to the value that they are paying for their rent. I mean, even if you want to rent a house in Deline, you have to make a certain amount of money. If you don’t, then they will have a hard time even getting into home ownership. If you’re making $8,050, Housing will tell you that you need to go to the bank to mortgage a house to get that house, and sometimes it’s very difficult because of the location.

We’re still waiting for a road into the Sahtu region, so the only time it makes it through is on the winter roads or through the barging system.

The conditions of a house in Deline… There are 101 units, people are having a hard time getting into them, and if they do get into them, there are so many policies. There are so many barriers for them to get into a house, which means that they have to live with their parents or their brothers and sisters and that causes a lot of overcrowding.

I think we need to remove some of these barriers in the Sahtu communities, especially Deline and any other community that would get people into a house. That would help them not deal with such issues as overcrowding, health issues and social issues. We need to make some radical changes and give people back their homes like they used to before the 1970s, where housing was an issue for the federal government to get people off the land. We need to make some changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.