Louis Sebert

The Department of Lands will and does work with lessees who are less than 90 days in arrears. However, once it reaches that point, they can work with the Department of Finance.

The assessed values of Commissioner's land parcels is determined by the assessors in MACA's assessment unit, which is a unit independent of the land managers in the Department of Lands. They use an approach that is consistent from community to community across the Northwest Territories to determine the assessed value of each parcel. If the occupant of the parcel disagrees with the assessed value, there are appeal mechanisms through MACA that can implemented to review the assessment.

Territorial land value is determined by an appraised value of land as required by the Northwest Territories land...

Yes, Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They are different, as the Member opposite has mentioned. Part of that is for historical reasons. One of them is based on the pre-devolution federal approached pricing, which we inherited, of course, in 2014, and one is our territorial approach on pricing.

The differences in lot pricing have become evident since 2014 and the creation of the Department of Lands. We are aware of the differences, and hopefully the differences will be less. As Members know, we are implementing an $840 minimum so that there will be a similarity between the minimum rates on the leases...

The Members may remember that the original proposal was that the three positions be all in Fort Smith, which seems sensible to me, because we have the expertise there. To be reasonable, we have come up with an alternate proposal to hopefully resolve this longstanding issue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned previously, the plan is to have five people in this section or this department dealing with equity leases; two in Fort Smith, one in Yellowknife, one in Inuvik, and one in either Fort Simpson or Fort Providence.

The review of these leases will of course take some time, and I do not think it's necessary that the staff be located in the exact location where the leases exist, so, therefore, we thought it most efficient that there be a team of people put together in Fort Smith so there is experienced staff there. As proposed, two of the candidates will remain in Fort Smith, the others will be one in Yellowknife, one in Inuvik, and one in either Fort Providence or Fort Simpson.

As Members will know, the number of positions for this task of resolving a long-standing issue of equity leases has gone from three to five. The initial training will be in Fort Smith. There is a support staff there. There are trained people, both working currently and those who have retired, therefore I thought that it would be sensible and most efficacious if there was a group of people working together. Since we do have trained staff there, we thought it best that two of the five positions would be and remain in Fort Smith. Thank you.

Of course, costs are always a concern. As I mentioned earlier, one of our problems is we are serving a vast territory with a very small population, so on a per capita basis, yes, our costs do seem very high. We are always looking at ways to reduce costs and reduce also the amount of criminal activity in the Northwest Territories through such initiatives as DVTO Court and Wellness Court.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have not yet had an opportunity to review the Macdonald-Laurier report, but I think we have been concerned over the last two years about some of the methodology. We don't think, in many ways, it correctly reflected our situation where we have vast distances and have a very small population. I do note that with respect to some of the more objective findings, such as the time required to get to court, we were near the top. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Lands recognizes and honours the land claim process as of the First Nations of the Northwest Territories. While these negotiations are taking place, the administration and control of land is in these areas that aren't federal remains a responsibility of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Further, the department consults with the Indigenous governments on any land administration actions in accordance with our procedures with respect to the Interim Measures Agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.