Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We have an ambitious plan here for delivery into our small communities, and I just wanted to commend the Minister and the staff that working with the committee and trying to find an equal balance here. The biggest thing was about addressing devolution, or decentralization, getting jobs out to the community, and I think that the plan somewhat addresses that.
I don’t have too much to say specifically on the capital, but I’m more interested, if you’ll give me the leeway there, Mr. Chair, on the release of the latest housing needs survey and when that will be done.
As well, another thing that constituents have often been asking me is about the income threshold
level; I think it’s called SNIP. Now when they’re applying for the affordable housing units, some constituents find themselves in double income situations where their household income is above the threshold limit, and I’ve always felt, and I’ve raised this to the Minister before, that those are the clients that we want to be in these housing units. They’re the ones that would be able to consistently make the mortgage payments; they are the ones that won’t be in an affordability situation.
I am just wondering if the department had a chance to review the income threshold limits when we are delivering our program, because I really feel that it will help. Sometimes they are in a small community, they are in an older house, but yet they cannot get access to the housing program to get themselves into a newer house, perhaps even freeing up the older house to other people in the community that want to try living on their own and start a home situation. So, just those couple of issues there, Mr. Chair. Thank you.