Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on being elected, we spent a good amount of time working together to come up with the mandate for the 18th Assembly. One of the mandates was to reduce the cost of living for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Well, I guess I must have missed something or did not understand what we meant by "reduction of cost of living." On March 15, 2018, during oral question period, I asked the Minister of Lands about the difference in lease rates between Commissioner's and NWT's lands. We were informed that the NWT's lands rates were going up to a minimum of $840 so there would be similarity between minimum rates on both leases.
On March 22nd, they sent a media notification that there was going to be a briefing about Commissioner's and territorial land payments. Commissioner's lands were going down by 5 per cent. This was a good-news story. However, NWT land lease payments were going up from $150 to $840 upon the renewal date. This is either a 336 to 560 per cent increase. There was no plan to implement an increase over a period of time. It was bang, here you go. The funny thing is that there is no reference to cutting the cost to seniors. They have a hard time paying $250 presently.
When I looked into this new directive and how it affected Nahendeh communities, especially designated authorities, there were going to be over 170 leases affected. This included traditional cabins that are part of residential traditional hunting and trapping areas. This could mean people would have to pay additional money to the government to hunt and trap.
In an interview, the Minister of Lands said that it was based on cost-of-living index the last time the payment was raised. I find it very interesting that this government is willing to use this formula when they want to generate revenue, but don't use this when they are calculating income support.
It is my understanding that it is common practice that these ideas are vented through Cabinet before coming to the floor. This makes me wonder if we truly care about small communities with these types of decisions.
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding after post-devolution a commitment was made to the Legislative Assembly and the people of the Northwest Territories that changes would not be made to the way leases were structured or lease rates were calculated. Unfortunately, this has changed.
Mr. Speaker, I have reached out to my residents and told them of this news. Not surprisingly, a lot of people did not hear about this and were not engaged about this potential increase. Later today, I will have questions for the Minister of Lands about this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.