Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of this House a situation I feel is unfair. The community corporation in my hometown of Fort Providence has brought this situation to my attention. I touched upon this issue in committee of the whole on Friday, March 2nd during the review of the main estimates for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Over the last ten years, the community corporation has leased a parcel of land from the territorial government through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Each of those ten years, those lease costs were $250. Last September, the lease on this parcel of land expired and because there were no changes to the leasing arrangement, MACA gave a credit of three percent each year for the old lease. Further, MACA also gave a credit for the value of lease payments made over the term of the original lease.
Mr. Speaker, imagine my constituents' surprise when they were informed that despite these deductions made to their lease, there was going to be a major increase in the cost of the lease. The community development corporation was also given the opportunity to choose between two different types of leases, a regular lease and an equity lease. If the regular lease was chosen, then annual lease payments would increase to $2,000 a year for 20 years and be subject to review and adjustment on each five-year anniversary. GST was not included in these figures. If the equity lease was chosen, annual payments of $2,500 would be required for the ten-year term. Again, this excludes GST. For the remaining ten years in the lease, the lessee would pay a dollar a year. The equity lease would result in a lower cash outlay for the 20-year period rather than the regular lease.
Mr. Speaker, should my constituents choose the regular lease option, the cost will increase from $250 a year to $2,000 a year. This is close to eight times the present yearly rate. Should the equity lease be chosen, the cost would go to $2,500 a year, ten times the present rate.
Mr. Speaker, these increases are not reasonable. I am concerned that the impact of major land lease increases like these on my constituents and other residents of the Northwest Territories will have dramatic effects. I will be posing questions later to the Minister. Thank you.
-- Applause