Madam Chair, first of all, we appreciate the Member’s comments. I think the good work that is being done at the Housing Corporation is reflected in the budgets that we bring forward and how our funding is spread evenly across the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, being one of the largest centres, in the last couple of years we have a few major projects here in Yellowknife. In the last seven years, I believe it is, we spent approximately $28 million in the capital. We spent $167 million in the smaller communities and about $66 million in some of the large communities, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Norman Wells. We make a real effort to allocate our funds fairly and equally.

Part of the problem in the smaller communities is Housing might be their only option to getting a place to stay, whereas some of the larger communities, you are able to get some other types of accommodation. That’s why we introduced the Rent Supplement Program. I think it goes a long way in helping some of the residents in some of the larger communities get a place to stay at a fairly reasonable cost. We try and distribute our funding equally across the Northwest Territories, again, recognizing that Yellowknife is one of the larger centres and there are many more options here.

As we go forward, you talk about the 168 people on the waiting list. If you looked across the Northwest Territories, the waiting list in a lot of our communities are not as large but if you go percentage-wise, based on population, it’s almost equal, if not more. Their options in the small communities are limited. In the next couple of years we are targeting a lot of the smaller communities, but we’re not ever going to overlook some of the large communities and the needs they have there. As we come forward with future budgets, I think you will see that we’ve made an effort to respond to all the needs across the Northwest Territories, be it large or small communities. Thank you.