Debates of May 26, 2005 (day 2)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know. I’m tempted to stay on this housing issue, but we’ll just leave it to rest for now. My question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs with respect to the new taxation year and new assessment year. More interest has accumulated. Letters have gone out to seizure of private property. Anxiety is raised in the communities again with all these registered mails that have gone out. I’m just wondering if the Minister can just let this House know if any progress in finding a resolution to these outstanding property tax issues and arrears and the assessment process has been carried forth from our last discussion in the last session about this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 18-15(4): Property Tax Assessments And Arrears

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking progress over property assessment and verification of property titles. That’s something we haven’t been able to do up to now. We intend to go into the communities of Fort Providence, Fort Liard and also Fort Resolution this summer. We intended to have our people do an assessment and verification of those communities last year, however, a number of the chiefs representing those communities asked us to hold off. In Fort Providence, we’ve had a face-to-face meeting with the leadership there. They have indicated they want to have a discussion and a workshop on how assessments are done and how titles are verified. We’re committed to doing that. We plan to do that this summer. So we’ve been able to set up or are in the process of setting up a date to go in the community and do that. In the situation of Fort Resolution, however, we haven’t done that and we would like to be able to do that. We will correspond with the leadership over the summer or over the next while with the intention of doing it this summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 18-15(4): Property Tax Assessments And Arrears

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for that replay because that was basically the basis of my next question. I think he must have been reading my notes or something. It’s good that the Minister is initiating some kind of a working group to go and visit these communities and inform them and explain to them what property assessment and taxation means and how it relates to their taxation bills and their assessment notices and community services. I wanted to know if the Minister would entertain the idea of ensuring that this working group consists of frontline workers. Not executive assistants, not the Minister, not his deputies, but actual frontline assessors who know exactly what it’s all about because that’s their profession; that they would be part of this working group that would see the community workshops take place and clarify a lot of this anxiety that people feel. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 18-15(4): Property Tax Assessments And Arrears

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I can certainly relate to the concern that the Member is raising. We intend to send our frontline workers to do the assessments in the communities, to verify the titles, to explain the process to the leadership. However, I think it would warrant a follow-up by myself and some of my staff and maybe members of the Department of Finance to go in also and talk about the different options that are causing some roadblocks or some concern to the aboriginal governments in the communities, and maybe look at different options that might be out there on how to accommodate the issues that are coming forth as a result of the land issues around land claim and self-government negotiations. I think that I would certainly agree with the Member. The discussions with the community has to be twofold; first of all with our staff, our technical and lands people, followed up by a political meeting with all of the leadership once we are all clear on what the process is and what we can do in terms of the next steps. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.

Supplementary To Question 18-15(4): Property Tax Assessments And Arrears

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my assumption would be safe to tell the general rate paying public that in these communities that have all of these accumulated arrears for their assessments that I feel are on the high end, this issue is going to be resolved within this taxation year. I hope I don’t have to bring it up next year and the year after. I just want to ask the Minister if he is committed to seeing that this issue is going to be done over the summer. We have all summer to do some workshops and everything. People are usually home. It is a good time for assessors to do stretch tape and whatnot. I just want the Minister to commit to the people and say it is going to get done and we are working on it and we look forward to seeing some closure to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 18-15(4): Property Tax Assessments And Arrears

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue that has been ongoing for some time. We have been very determined to move forward on some of these issues that are being raised in terms of verification of titles and the amounts being assessed for different properties. Our staff has indicated that we have been ready to go into the community for some time. I will commit to the Member that we fully intend to go this summer. We would like to go this summer. We would like to work with the Member and set up some meetings and open up that line of communication and get all of this work done and some of these issues out of the way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.