Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m going to speak today about a topic I have brought up, I think, pretty consistently in the last 15 years that I’ve been an MLA. I don’t know how many terms you have to be elected or how many years you have to serve in order to get some of these issues resolved, but please don’t make me come back here again. I hope this can get resolved soon.
Mr. Speaker, the Senior Citizens and Disabled Persons Property Tax Relief Act, an act of this government, permits a municipal taxing authority, by bylaw, to exempt the eligible property of a disabled person from a part of the taxes where the disabled person is the owner or part owner of the eligible property. The MTA, Municipal Taxing Authority, shall not exempt from taxes the eligible property of a disabled person who is part owner of the eligible property unless the other part owner or all other part owners are disabled persons or dependents of the disabled person.
Hay River’s disabled person’s property tax relief bylaw is consistent with that act. So in Hay River, the Town of Hay River has a bylaw that is consistent with this government’s act. The problem being, Mr. Speaker, is that most people who own a property who are in a relationship, who are married, have a common-law spouse, usually put the title in both of their names. The chances of both parties being disabled reduces the number of people who would be eligible for this tax quite considerably. Also, when it comes to senior citizens, if one person becomes eligible at the age of 65 for this tax relief and the other partner or party is younger than 65, again, they become ineligible for this tax relief.
Now, we’ve been talking about this for a long time, it hardly seems fair, Mr. Speaker, and it should be prorated or have some provision so that people can take advantage of this property tax relief.
I know that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has been working on this particular act. I believe there’s been a document, a consultative document that has gone out, there has been feedback come back, but, Mr. Speaker, as an MLA I continue to get inquiries at my constituency office about this, about when is it going to be changed, when is it going to be made fair and when are people going to have to stop going to drastic measures of putting the property in one partner’s name, which creates all kinds of other problems, potentially, in the future. So, Mr. Speaker, I’ll have questions today for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs on the tax relief for persons with disabilities and seniors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
