Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we recognize there is a concern there by many aboriginal people who are living mainly on Commissioner's land in the communities and have been assessed to pay tax based upon the assessed value of the land. People who live on IAB land, we call them lands reserved for Treaty Indians, they do not pay property taxes. While those who live on other lands, such as Commissioner's lands, are required to pay taxes because of our legislation. This legislation is the general taxation area.
I am going to be working with the Minister of Finance, who sets the tax rates, to try to develop some options which allow for trying to resolve this. Hopefully, we will have some proposals ready by the fall. We need time to look at it, and see what options are there.
The problem here is that this is our legislation that was put in place quite some time ago, and we in the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, the lands area, put an assessment on the property. The other department put a value on it and tries to collect the taxes. So there are two departments that we are dealing with. We will be working with the Department of Finance to try to come out with something by the fall. Thank you.