Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Even though the executive of the Association of Municipalities indicated to the Member that there was no ongoing consultation, we have been dealing with some municipalities on a daily basis for two years now. We have been making them aware of the changes that are coming about. Some of them have been happy to receive the news and some of them have not been so happy. It depends who they are. I think I spent more time talking to the mayor and the administrator in Fort Simpson than I have ever talked to anyone in my life. I have talked to them every day, and they are anxious to get in line with the policy.
The only thing we could not consult with them about was the rate change, itself, because we didn't know what Cabinet was going to approve. So, that was not done. As far as the association, the executive director works right in our building and I talk to her on a daily basis. She has been well-aware, not officially in writing, but on a verbal basis, of exactly where we have been with the policy.
Regarding hamlets, I've personally dealt with the mayor of Rae-Edzo, the mayor in Rankin Inlet, a lot of mayors. They've been waiting for the policy changes and are aware of them. They just don't know what the rate is. We only got official approval towards the end of March. In fact, I broke protocol by advising some municipalities of it because they were anxious to hear about it, even before the Minister had a chance to announce it. That wasn't the right thing for me to do, of course, but I did it to try to help them out so we could review the impact of the policy amendments on their municipalities.
We know we need at least 90 days before we can implement the policy, to give the users a chance to adjust to the rates, to rationalize them and to ensure they watch any hardship cases that might arise. We don't know all the impacts this will have because every tax-based municipality is different. Some hamlets are different too. We are hoping during the next few months that we will be consulting with them on a detailed basis, knowing what the rates are.
We have been consulting on an ongoing basis for the last two years, not in writing or anything like that, but unofficially. As we see each other -- and we see each other often -- the superintendents have been preparing the communities for changes, the same way as they advise us when they have to change their rates. We consult, sometimes, a year in advance. Some of the reasons some of them are in deficit situations is because they have to change their rates. There have been ongoing discussions about that. It sometimes seems to be easier for them to change their rates when they have to increase them than when they have to decrease them because they are collecting too much revenue and they have too large a surplus.
As far as timing, we'll have to go back to Cabinet to get permission because we are running out of time for the 90 days, as required. We probably are going to have to ask permission to push the date back because we need the time for consultation about the effects in each community.
As far as the deficits in each community, we have dealt with some of the ten communities that are in a deficit position. They know what they have to do about it and the by-laws have already been changed. The consultation did take place. I might also add that we did consult with some MLAs as well. In fact, Mr. Antoine was in touch with us a few times and we kept him advised of how things were coming along, but, again, we didn't know about the exact rates. If we delayed it too much across the board, then it might cause some hardship for some municipalities like Fort Simpson, because they want to get on it as soon as possible, and the same thing with Hay River.