Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to talk about the sensitive issue of outstanding property taxes that many communities are working to address and find a resolution or a plan that is mutually acceptable by all parties affected.

This issue has always been met with very little action or no headway being made by this government to do justice. Now it has been outstanding for at least 10 years, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the new deal for the Northwest Territories community governments is being rolled out and the implementation of the program will commence in one month and continue over the next four years. This government's new deal does not make any reference to this important outstanding issue or how it fits into the new deal initiative, even though many communities still have grave concerns with how this should be addressed or resolved.

One main concern, Mr. Speaker, is that as we sit and talk about the reasons for the delays and lack of progress in developing a plan to address these concerns, because of the sensitive nature of the topic, this interest is still accumulating every day on these outstanding property tax accounts. Mr. Speaker, besides all the stress and anxiety this issue creates, especially with the elders and the new homeowners, this also has detrimental effects to people's credit ratings and their ability to borrow money from any financial institutions.

Mr. Speaker, I fully support the new deal initiative and look forward to achieving more independent, strong, autonomous communities through this project. But I also support healthy communities and building individual self-esteem and self-respect amongst my constituents. If the issue of outstanding property taxes is left with the communities to deal with on behalf of the Department of Finance, with the new deal rolled out, the people are going to approach it with the same level of apathy and disdain as they do with many government plans put before them. I will be asking the Minister responsible for this department, some questions during question period today. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause