Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I discussed rent that is currently being collected on lots in the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding. I’d like to ask the Minister of Lands questions. Would the Minister be willing to consider adjusting the rent currently charged on land to a reasonable amount, especially for seniors and other people on fixed income? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands has already instituted lease-cost breaks for seniors, in recognition of high lease costs. The department is also examining the lease payment structure in settled and unsettled areas and how leaseholders can gain title through outright purchase or lease. The options in the unsettled area are quite limited. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm glad the Minister mentioned the Seniors and Disabled Persons Property Tax Relief program. My next question is: will the Minister consider applying that senior citizens’ property tax relief for individuals in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh that are renting their lot right now?
Masi. Minister of Lands.
We are quite limited to what we can do in the unsettled areas, because some of that land might be claimed by the claimant groups, but we would be willing to work with the Member and work with the claimant groups to see if there are any options that might be available to us. But because they are in the process of negotiation, as I said a couple of times already, our options are quite limited.
The Minister mentions the land claim organizations and the work that goes on there for those negotiations. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could contact those organizations, not necessarily trying to establish a side table, that is not my responsibility or authority, but just to have the discussion on this issue. This is a serious issue, and if individuals want to move forward to fix their units and so on, as I indicated in here, we need to resolve this issue. I would like to know if the Minister would be prepared to talk about this issue specifically with land claim organizations.
I take the Member's point about the high cost of leases. I think I have seen some of the numbers, and they are paying a fairly high cost. We can make contact with the claimant groups to see if there is a preliminary discussion we can have. As the Member said himself, we don't want to start a side table to deal with this. I will commit to the Member that I will make some contact with them and see if we can initiate a discussion as to how we can move forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for that response. Mr. Speaker, one of the options that may not be apparent to everyone that used to be a fairly standard process was an equity lease process, where the individual ends up owning the land. At this point, since they are renting the land, can the Minister look at something that may be just a little outside of the taxing authority, since they are renting the property and they are not taxing it, if they would look at something like rent-to-own once they have some sort of concurrence from the land claim organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am willing to have discussions in how we can move forward with this. We have to take a number of things into consideration. We would have to look at the legislation to see if we are able to even entertain that idea, so as I commented before, I will have a discussion with the appropriate parties and see if there is an opportunity for us to move this forward. I take the Member's point, again, about the rent-to-own, but because it's an unsettled area, it kind of slows the process down a bit. But we will have those discussions. We will see how we can move the issue forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
