Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honourable Members. I am pleased to speak to you today about Bill 9, Municipal Statutes Amendment Act. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development who conducted the public hearing on Tuesday, October 11th. Those Members were Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Hawkins under the able leadership of Mrs. Groenewegen, the chair, and they provided very thoughtful questions and comments on the proposed amendments. Bill 9 contains three amendments to the municipal statutes, which include the Charter Communities Act, the Cities, Towns and Villages Act the and Hamlets Act.
The bill before you proposes three changes to each of the municipal statutes, and all three changes are in the nature of housekeeping amendments. By way of background, the current municipal legislation was passed during the Sixth Session of the 14th Legislative Assembly and became effective on April 1, 2004. That legislation modernized the Charter Communities Act, the Cities, Towns and Villages Act and the Hamlets Act. Since then, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and community governments have worked with the new legislation. That experience has made it apparent that the amendments contained in the bill before you are required.
The first amendment deals with refinancing of long-term debt. Under the current legislation, if a community government wishes to refinance long-term debt, they must seek further approval of the voters or the Minister or both. This is true even when the original debt was approved by the voters or the Minister. This procedure is both time consuming and very costly for the community governments.
The amendment we propose will enable community governments to create a bylaw authorizing refinancing of long-term debt that does not require the approval of either the voters or the Minister, so long as three conditions are met. First, long-term debt must be used solely for the purposes of refinancing an existing long-term debt. Second, approval of either the voters, the Minister or both was obtained for the original debt or it was exempt from such approvals. Third, the principal amount to be borrowed does not exceed the principal amount borrowed under the long-term debt being refinanced.
The second amendment proposed is for written notice. This amendment will require a person who intends to bring an action for loss or damage from snow and roadways or just repair of roads to provide written notice within 30 days of the event that gave rise to the action. Communities can establish a longer notice period through a bylaw.
Communities have expressed concern that currently, a person can indicate an intention to sue verbally to anyone associated with a municipality in an informal way that may not be recognized as serious notice that an event has occurred. The proposed amendment will clarify that if an event has occurred, it must be indicated in writing to the senior administrative officer. Clarifying the intent of this provision will have a positive impact on the liability exposure of community governments.
The third amendment deals with transferring of unpaid land-based service charges to property taxes in communities that are municipal taxing authorities. Before the coming into force of the new municipal legislation, municipal taxation authorities could transfer unpaid water and sewer bills to property taxes. That function was inadvertently omitted in the comprehensive amendments and needs to be reinstated. This amendment is intended to do just that.
Until this proposed amendment is passed, municipal taxation authorities have to carry the unpaid water and sewer charges while continuing to attempt to collect them. Once this amendment is approved, municipal taxing authorities will have again have the authority to transfer unpaid water and sewer charges to property taxes and effect collection through the property tax process.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to advise you that the department has consulted with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and they are supportive of the proposed amendments. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the opportunity to answer any questions members of the Committee of the Whole may have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.