Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here today to discuss Bill 58: Justice Administration Statutes Amendment Act. This bill proposes to make targeted and necessary legislative amendments to acts that support the justice system in the Northwest Territories.

This bill amends various statutes administered by the Department of Justice to:

repeal provisions of An Act to Amend the Children's Law Act and amend the Children's Law Act to establish a recalculation service;

amend the Coroners Act to clarify the responsibilities of the Chief Coroner and coroners in respect of inquests and authorize the...

Of course, if the value of your house is a lower amount, then the fees are lower, too. A fee on a $300,000 house is higher than it would be on a $250,000 house. If you bought at $300,000 and paid a fee then and then someone else buys the house or you buy another house at $250,000, you are going to pay less than you would have. The point is the fees are based on the value of the property or the size of the mortgage. If the market is in decline, we will be collecting fewer fees. Thank you.

Well, I'd like to deal first with the issue of the $500,000 of which I spoke of and which was referenced earlier. It's not as though this will all come from Yellowknife; land transfer in Fort Smith or Hay River would likely also be effected. We didn't want to have a revenue shock, if I can put it that way, on the consumers who would be paying this, so that is why it was decided that a most reasonable approach would be to phase it in over time. As I say, the rates had not been changed in approximately 25 years, maybe slightly more, slightly less, but it has been a long time with no change.

They were already not cost recovery; they were revenue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to clarify, when I said $500,000, that would be the amount per year that we would be getting after the three years, so it would ramp up to that amount, I assume.

I am not sure if I understood the other portion of the question. I was having a bit of trouble listening. Perhaps it could be repeated?

Yes, that's likely. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, of course. The fees are phased in over three years. The fee could be imposed when you buy a property, certainly, but it could also be imposed when a mortgage is registered. That might not always be when you buy a property; there could be remortgaging, for example. Thank you.

It is an increase of fees, of course, but it is not a land transfer tax.

Yes, I do.

Thank you for the question. I really don't have that kind of information in front of me. All I want to say, though, is that the way that these fees are set up, if you were remortgaging at $300,000, you will pay a certain fee. If you are remortgaging at $250,000, you will pay a smaller fee. That is how the system is set up. Again, I don't have the kind of information that the Member is asking me about as to the number of these types of transactions and so on. I simply don't have that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.