Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I'm going to speak about the land lease fees for people who own cabins on lands in the NWT. This is a topic which I have discovered that the Minister of Lands seems to enjoy speaking about. In fact, the Minister asked me recently if I was going to ask him questions about this anytime soon. Well, here it comes.

Mr. Speaker, I once pointed out that the Minister stood up 72 times during the 18th Assembly, talking and asking questions about land leases. He later told me that it was likely more times than that. Well, I went back and checked Hansard, and he was right. I would like to amend that number to 83, that he stood up and mentioned land leases in the previous Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I have not done a Member's statement on this topic since November of 2020. That has given the Minister of Lands and his department plenty of time to work on the Public Lands Act and enough time to hopefully advance the whole issue into a positive direction for the people of the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, the last time I spoke about this, the Minister admitted that the main reason lease rent fees had increased was to create more revenue for the government. Therefore, the previous government had decided to increase user fees for rent on leases rather than cut costs elsewhere or find revenue from other sources. So in essence, these fees and lease rent increases are a money grabber for the government. It's time we be honest and say that.

Mr. Speaker, at the time when inflation is at a 31-year high, these increased land leases are hurting regular people more than ever. It was nice that the lands department had waived all lease fees for the fiscal year 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic as that did offer some reprieve for people; however, I think that same offer should have been extended for another year for the fiscal year 2021-2022 as the pandemic was still ongoing during that time.

I did ask the Minister to consider that via email but he declined to pursue that. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Minister of Lands knows in his heart of hearts that the new rent minimum for cabin lease costs had gone up too much and too soon for the people of the NWT. To get up 83 times and talk about cabin leases and lease fee increases, I have to believe the Minister shares my concerns that the increases were too much for people to absorb in such a short time span. I understand that lease rent and fees had not increased in 20 years, but I urge the government to have some compassion for people's pocketbooks.

There are some people who are on very fixed incomes, and there are others living paycheque to paycheque, so these high cabin-rent increases are having a very negative impact for many people in my riding and across the NWT. I can go on, but I will leave it at that for now. I will have questions for the Minister of Lands later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.