Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe. That -- you know, well, when I came into this role as an MLA previously, I received a lot of income assistance questions or concerns from my constituents. So I know there's areas that can be improved, and that's why we've initiated review of the Income Assistance Program.

And through that review, this is one of those areas that we're looking at. I have to say that the Member is correct that housing is -- it's a government wide issue, and for our part at ECE, we do provide housing in a sense where we will provide rental support to individuals who can't afford it essentially, or who are down on their luck, who are having a rough time.

And these individuals have to use all of their own financial means first. And one of those -- or one of those things available to them is the social subsidized housing through the housing corporation. And the reason that that is currently a requirement is cost essentially. Over the past three years, shelter benefits have been provided to around 2,000 income assistance applicants in the Territory to the tune of about $7 million. Of that, 40 percent of those individuals were in market rental units; however, that accounts for about 90 percent of the cost. The 60 percent who are in -- who have been public housing accounts for about 11 percent of the cost.

So it would be a great cost to ECE to provide that benefit; however, someone's paying that cost of the public housing. And so the money's being spent by the government.

And so is there a way that we can make things more efficient, reduce the burden on people, reduce the burden on administration? And if one of those ways is by rejigging how we provide housing and who provides housing, then we want to do that.

So I don't have a firm "yes" now, but I want to have a policy that makes sense by the time this Assembly is over. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.