Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let me just start off by welcoming all the Members here back into the 15th Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, last year and the year before and I’m sure many years prior, myself and many other Members of this House, from this side of the House and that side of the House, have raised the issue of our rent scale used in our public housing here in the NWT many times, Mr. Speaker. There are many concerns about the disincentive it creates to seek meaningful employment by the clients in our public housing, the animosity it raises between the clients, the LHO staff and our NWT Housing Corporation staff about what is deemed fair for rent for units that just may be lacking in proper maintenance or just plain run down, and the lack of respect for this government’s housing stock by many public housing clients due to the fact that they just feel they are just not being treated fairly in their communities when it comes to public housing allocations and rental agreements and rent scales.

Mr. Speaker, from the many inquiries and concerns I received on this issue, this is never going to go away unless this government has to really seriously revisit this issue and ensure the people in our public housing units are being assessed rent that is deemed fair in the terms of their social and financial circumstances in their communities, and on the condition of the unit and on a scale which allows clients to move out of our public housing, which is the public housing mandate here in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, later on today I will be again asking the Minister of Housing questions about this government’s action plans, if any, to address this ongoing, anti-independent, socially dysfunctional system of public housing management, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Minister can present some good action plan that this government intends to take in the next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause