Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Finance made a statement on the Property Tax Arrears program earlier today, and I thank the Minister for this statement. This has been a big issue for the community of Fort Liard, and I have spoken with the Minister a number of times on this issue. Can the Minister provide any further details on this program, besides what he has already said in his Minister's statement? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I noted before, the Property Tax Arrears program is designed to provide a path for residents to address the outstanding arrears. Residents can enter into a repayment plan for the outstanding property taxes, and the interest that has been building up will be forgiven; or, in other words, the resident will not have to pay the interest portion. Residents, we have to be quite clear, have to stay current on their payment plan on future property taxes to stay eligible for the program.
This is great news moving forward. Can the Minister provide some details on how some residents, especially those who live in Fort Liard, how they can apply for this new program?
We are sending letters to all clients with arrears, and we will provide them with details on applying for the program. We are also doing a communication effort in communities in the general taxation area, and we are working with our GSOs, and they have been trained to help residents apply for the program, as well.
That is good to hear, and I hope the Minister will actually reach out to us MLAs, too, and get that information out to us. Will the Minister's department be working with residents as part of this program to establish an affordable payment program, and how does it have an impact on people who have already entered into a payment program?
The quick answer is yes, when a resident applies, we will work with the client to come up with an affordable monthly payment plan, and, if there are some that have entered into repayment plans already, we would expect them to honour it, and this program would apply to them, as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point in time, I would like to thank the Minister for this information. My final question is: we have been considering the standard interest rate act in this session; how does this legislation relate to this new program?
These initiatives, they are related. The Property Tax Arrears program will help residents that have built up appears in the past. It is a time-limited program, however, to deal with these circumstances. Going forward, the standard interest rate establishes a more reasonable interest rate on any outstanding amounts owed to the GNWT in property taxes. These two initiatives taken together should help address the historic problem we have had with property tax arrears. That said, though, residents will have to pay their property taxes, and, if they do not, the arrears will start to grow again over time. With the other piece of legislation that we were dealing with, we had varying interest rates across the programs in the Northwest Territories. I think we had some as high as 18 percent. We are starting to standardize all of those, so I think it will do well for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
