Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that they have identified a lot of issues with the existing structure, and it represents a risk to health and safety, but I think the Member's question is why the replacement is costing $304,000. I am not quite sure. My understanding is that they are going to do a design contract to be awarded in the spring of 2018 with construction in the fall of 2018. I am not sure exactly what the specs are for the new shelter. I would have to follow up with the Department of Infrastructure and see. I take the Member's point, though. You are looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. These are carry-overs. Again, as far as the detail goes, something that I think we have learned today is that some of the information that the Members are looking for, I don't have the level of detail provided to me. What I will do is I will have a conversation with all of the departments and ask them to provide me with a little bit more detail to some of the questions that Members are asking so that I am in a better position to defend their asks for the appropriations. I apologize for that, and I think we have also ironed out the process...

When I said that I was going in circles, I meant my answer was going in circles and I was trying to find a place to end the answer, not the questioning itself. The Department of Finance, we do track the principle and interest separately for each individual account, and all taxation legislation provides for an interest component, which motivates residents to keep their accounts with the government current. Changing the legislation to set up for an interest and then to potentially waive the fee would be contradictory and problematic as a policy choice. The government does need to continue to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the principle that is owed by the Hamlet of Fort Liard is approximately $700,000: $699,675; interest would be $1,169,999 million; a total of $1.8 million that is owed in taxes by the Hamlet of Fort Liard.

I am not sure what type of consultation they had in 1988 as far as the mill rates go. The Member mentioned the interest rate of 15 per cent, and I believe he mentioned in his Member's statement that there was one outstanding tax of, I think it was, $50,000 plus interest; or I am not sure if that included interest, but plus interest would have come out to about $100,000. We do not want to see anybody get that far in debt to the Government of the Northwest Territories. That is why we encourage people to try pay their property taxes. If you look territory-wide, we have about $9.7 million in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Hamlet of Fort Liard's mill rate is the general mill rate which was first established in 1988 and over time has increased, as decided by the Minister of Finance. As part of the new deal in 2005, general taxation area communities were able to request increases to their general mill rate to raise additional revenues to pay for community services. Beginning in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the general mill rate has been escalated by the inflation rate.

The quickest solution to the situation that we face right now is for people to honour the commitments that they have made and pay their property taxes. That way, we are in a position to provide the level of service that they have become accustomed to. We need that to happen, but, failing that, we understand that there are some issues. Again, some people are so far into tax arrears that they find it problematic to try to work their way out of it. We are interested in coming up with a repayment plan. I think the Member's question was: would we go into the community and meet with them? I think...

Under the property tax legislation, outstanding interest charges are considered to be a part of the tax outstanding. Remission of any property tax or interest would be decision of the executive council. As I said before, we want to work with the residents on a repayment plan, and, if we start forgiving interest, then we will have to do it across the Northwest Territories.

In tax-based communities, people pay a property tax to get the services that are offered within that community. In the GTA, they pay the property tax to government with funding through the hamlets and community governments. We...

The Member is correct. All interest charges that are collected remain with the GNWT, and we keep the money because we bear the cost of collections, so that is why we keep the money. Again, I have to make the point that we do not want to see people getting that far into tax arrears. A few years ago, I think there was an initiative to try to have the communities themselves set their own mill rates, collect their own taxes, and use it, but most communities, other than these tax-based communities which already do it, did not want that option because then they in turn would have to deal with the...

Mr. Speaker, the property tax invoices are broken down into three sections. You've got the general tax, school tax, and any interest. The school tax is approximately 48 per cent of the property tax invoice for the current year, and all the interest charged is revenue for the GNWT to fund schools and other government programs. The general tax portion is approximately 52 per cent of the property tax invoice for the current year and is currently granted back to the communities through the MACA Property Tax Revenue Grant Program under the new deal once an invoice for the years of 2004 to present...