Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to go back to my comments on the general statement regarding land and the problems it is causing in some of the communities that I represent. In most of the communities I represent, we have high unemployment. We have seen the land leases probably jump tenfold. There is a real concern.
Prior to the increase in land leases, we already had a real high percentage of people who were in arrears and facing the possibility of eviction. I think some people had received notice that their wages would be garnisheed. There was also the aboriginal view that many of these people should not be paying taxes. There had been some direction provided by chiefs in the past that they were not going to pay taxes and they did not want any of their members to pay taxes.
I think this problem is being compounded and we have not done anything about it up until now. With this increase in land leases, we are really placing undue hardship on all of the residents in a lot of the communities in the North.
I am not only speaking for the communities that I represent such as Fort Providence and Enterprise that are really having problems with this, but there are others out there that have voiced concerns. Fort Resolution, Fort McPherson and Fort Rae are all having the same problems. I do not agree that the process was done totally according to how things should be evaluated. There was no community visit. There was no consultation. There was no discussion. It seems to be a process that was handled right here in the offices in Yellowknife and then sent down the tubes.
I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider doing a review of the whole process to assure us that it was done correctly and that there were no flaws and nothing was missed and that is indeed how the leases should have been increased, by ten times what they were before, in some cases 12 or more. It is a real jump. I am having a hard time accepting the fact how the process was handled. I would like to see the process reviewed, community by community if possible. Thank you.