Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in this week I was asking questions to the Minister of Lands about leases. As I said, when I looked into this further, I noticed a large number of residents who live in designated authorities were hit big time with increases due to their leases, whether it's their homes or their traditional cabins. In speaking with the residents, they came up with a question: how is this government working with First Nation peoples if we continue to do this? Can the Minister please explain how his department is working with the First Nations community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In November of 2016, the department engaged committee with our intent and duty, in fact, to consult Indigenous governments with respect to proposed fee changes. The consultation included changes to fees for lease rent minimums, among others.
In November, following up on that commitment, consultation letters were sent out to IGOs. Now, I have the letter in front of me, which I would be very happy to share with the Member opposite, and can see that it dealt with a large number of fee changes, including the lease fees. This letter went out to a large number of Aboriginal organizations, dozens of them, both within the Northwest Territories and outside the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned the other day, there was a consultation period, and committee was informed when that consultation period was over. That consultation, as I say, included a great number of Aboriginal groups, so we felt that we fully fulfilled our obligation to consult. That really is the consultation period that I referred to in some earlier questions, the consultation with Aboriginal groups. That took place, and as a result, after the consultation period was over, we moved ahead with this.
Of course, quite apart from the letters that did go out, there was considerable discussion in this House and in the press about the proposed changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess consultation is different in my books. I think we should be engaging. We should actually be going to the communities and talking to them, and not just downloading a whole bunch of letters to them and expecting them to understand what we are talking about, but I will take the Minister up on it and get to see the letter, and we will go from there.
When the government was looking at this increase, I was wondering why they didn't have an implementation over a period of time on that instead of just the one-time shot. Can the Minister explain why this idea was not looked at and implemented?
There is no phase-in for individual lessees because the approach taken is to have the changes take effect during rent review or lease renewal processes. Because the changes to lease fees do not take effect until an individual lease is renewed or at the next rent review date, as stipulated, some leaseholders may not see changes for their lease fees for up to five years. This means that some leaseholders will have received, in essence, a five-year advance notification of the fee change.
As I mentioned yesterday, although it seems, when I was looking at Hansard, I may have used the wrong dates, if a lease was renewed last year for a period of five years at the old rate, if I can put it that way, then that rate would still be in effect for the term of the lease.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I am still struggling with why we didn't do a phase-in over a period. Leases change, and that, but they could have done that. I think the government could have been working with the residents instead of seeing a 336 per cent to up to a 560 per cent increase in their fees. That concerns me.
With the Government of the NWT reducing Commissioner's lands to 5 per cent, I have to give credit to the government. That was a positive step. I would have loved to see 3 per cent, but 5 per cent, as the Minister says, is better than the 10 per cent. I will have to give them credit for that.
However, was this part of the strategy to make up the shortfall for the revenue that the GNWT was losing when the Commissioner's lands leases were reduced, by increasing these fees?
No, the matters are really unrelated. I think for some time we had thought that the lease fees were too low, and of course when discussing the 10 per cent amount, which we have now reduced to 5 per cent, we heard from the Members opposite this was of great concern, and in response to those concerns, we lowered the rate.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, but unfortunately, I didn't get an answer. I heard a reduction of 5 per cent, you know, but it didn't say if that was in there, this reduction. I guess, the Minister of Finance, maybe I should be asking him the questions on that, but I'll worry about that later on. So my last question: with the huge increases to NWT lease fees, can the Minister please advise the House what the residents will see when it comes to the service being offered by the GNWT? Are they enhancing the services? Are they doing anything, including for these people out there who have cabins out in the bush? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We had thought for some time that in no way did the lease fees cover the types of costs of administering such a huge area. So we thought there had to be an increase in any case, but apart from that, of course, there are certain things that lessees receive. One of those things is exclusive right to use the land with legal certainty. So we feel that that alone is worth quite a bit, and of course there are issues that Lands is going be having to deal with in the future, such as unauthorized occupancy. So yes, there were increases, and we feel they were justified. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
