Tom Beaulieu

Would the Minister agree that if an individual family was homeless and that the only thing preventing the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation from allocating a unit to that homeless family was a policy that could easily be adjusted, would the Minister adjust that policy?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Lands at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Marci, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation if the policy of the Housing Corporation is to house as many people as possible with their social housing inventory? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With all the laughter, I think the deputy minister didn't hear the question; I was asking about Akaitcho. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The assessed value being applied to any piece of property when you're developing a tax, you use a mill rate; currently, the department is using 10 per cent as a mill rate. So effectively it's not really a mill rate; it's a rent, but they're essentially using 10 per cent of the value.

So you have a piece of property there that's appraised in accordance with the land policy at roughly $40,000, which is pretty standard across the small communities; the taxes or the rent or the lease on that property is $4,000. That's totally unreasonable. I don't want to talk about the increase to the minimums...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks again to the deputy. I have another question: I wonder if the Minister can give us the same type of detail that we've just heard on the Akaitcho land use plan? Thank you.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Lands on the leases and taxes and rent or whatever the term is for land tenure. I'd like to ask the Minister if he would look at lowering the cost of land lease or rentals at least in the communities I represent. I don't know what the situations are in others. So I'd like to ask that question first. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to ask the Minister or the department if the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act has ever been amended since 1996? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask the Minister how old the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think the Minister and I are talking about two different things. What I am talking about here is I am trying to get the Minister to see the unfairness in a situation where we have a community that has employment rates in the 40 per cent, most people over the age of 65 living on Old Age Security; very few, if any, people in the small communities I represent actually have a pension that is, for example, a superannuation pension, something that gives them fairly decent income.

We are talking about people who are living on Old Age Security. There has never...