Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had Members say that answers are excellent. Perfect! We’ve had Ministers say that questions are excellent. Boy, this must be Valentine’s Day.
My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. As I often start my paragraph, I have an idea. MACA is responsible for assessing the value of improvements and land in all of our communities. As part of that responsibility, they send out assessments to every landowner or leaser on an annual basis.
I Would Like To Ask The Minister What Would Be Involved In Including A Line On That Assessment Which Would Indicate What The Previous Year’s Assessment Had Been. For This Reason: every five years there’s a general reassessment in tax-based municipalities necessarily, then assessments change, they usually go up, unfortunately, sometimes they may go down. But there are opportunities for landowners to appeal assessments, either through a territorial appeal board or a municipal appeal board, but it isn’t something that people always keep right at their fingertips, their previous year’s tax assessment.
Mr. Speaker, that was the best Member’s statement I’ve heard all day.
---Laughter
And I would like to ask the Member if that is possible.
No, the Member makes a good point. It is one that I will explore with the department to see. It is very simple. It is actually a good idea to have the number from the previous year. I will explore that and see if we can get that included on the assessments that go out to clients. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent answer. I pay taxes in more than the Northwest Territories, so I can tell you that in other jurisdictions, this is a practice. I am sure it would require some change in the software that produces the tax assessments and so on.
Would it be possible for the Minister to perhaps have his department do a little inter-jurisdictional research to see how this is carried out, how this is accomplished in other jurisdictions? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we will commit to the Members that we will do a bit of research. If there is a slight upgrade we need to make, I think this is a good idea that would work for those out there. I do pay taxes, too, and I don’t have an opportunity to see what I was assessed at last year. We will explore that, and do a little bit of research and see if we can implement it here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
