Thank you, Madam Speaker. I do not believe that this territory can move forward on settling land claims without first sorting out the issues of rightsbased cabins. And, Madam Speaker, this is a bit of a catch-22 in that the cleanest solution to settling rightsbased cabins is settling land claims, because once an Indigenous government has their land and their cabins are on it then they can sort that out with their membership. Yet, Madam Speaker, we have heard time and time again, in many meetings with Indigenous governments, on no matter what the subject, quite often it comes back around to complaints about cabins. And, Madam Speaker, I want to point out just how inconsistent we are in this.
Many rightsbased cabins right now do not have leases or taxes, and we have posted notices on them that they are squatters. Some Indigenous governments have shared which cabins they identify as Indigenous rights. Others are saying they will not do that because they do not trust the government. Some rightsbased cabins, many years ago someone was told they had to get a lease and then they were instructed by their Indigenous government not to pay those lease fees or taxes and so they're now in collections with the GNWT. Some rightsbased cabins, Madam Speaker, are unauthorized occupants but are paying taxes because we tax squatters. Some Indigenous rightsbased cabins have actually applied for tax exempt status. There's about eight different scenarios you can be in with your rightsbased cabin. Part of the problem is saying every rightsbased cabin needs a lease is then you are going to pay lease fees, you're going to pay taxes, and quite often these hunters and trappers cabins are not actually in compliance with our cabin regulations. They may be too close to the water. They may not be up to building standards. All this results in multiple infringements of what is a clear Indigenous right to have cabins to hunt and trap, Madam Speaker. I do not believe we are going to make any progress until we settle this. And there are things we can do.
One is to create some form of tenure so that those who have rightsbased cabins can be protected knowing that is their cabin; they have exclusive use to it. There's different ways of what that tenure can look like but I propose it is not the traditional lease that we're requiring for everyone else.
Secondly, we need to have some consistency on when a rightsbased cabin has to pay lease fees, has to pay taxes. I propose most of those should be a nominal fee, at best, and we certainly shouldn't be sending our hunters and trappers, or our elders living in their cabins, to collections, Madam Speaker. I think it is losing trust with our residents and, ultimately, we're not going to make any progress on many of these issues until we solve this. I will have questions for the Premier about what we're doing to solve this issue once and for all. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
