Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to second this motion. I've spoken to this issue a number of times in this House. Presently, right now, if you own a million-dollar home on the Ingraham Trail, you pay the exact same fees and you are under the exact same rules as a multigenerational cabin in the Inuvialuit settlement region. Mr. Speaker, land seizures is the same thing, and they clearly are not the same conversation. We need to separate those out. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of ways we can treat rights-based cabins. There is a number of creative solutions, and it's going to depend probably on the Indigenous government and the Indigenous person in question. One simple solution may be fee simple title for that harvester. Another case may be a new type of Indigenous tenure. I would suggest a 99-year lease with nominal fees and perhaps it could be transferred only to the Indigenous government itself or a fellow rights holder. Mr. Speaker, perhaps we have to go identify these leases and simply give them to the Indigenous government in that region so that it's no longer a public lands issue.
Mr. Speaker, perhaps some of these cabins should have been included in the initial final agreements in the first place. But here we are 40 years later after settling a land claim and this issue is still not resolved, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, until that issue is resolved, until there is an agreement between those Indigenous governments and the GNWT how to approach these leases, we should not be charging fees and we should not be taking these people to collections.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Lands knows this all too well. He knows there are people who entered into leases and then their Indigenous government has told them not to pay those fees. They have told them they do not have to pay those fees, and then we ruin their credit because they are listening to what they believe is their Indigenous right and what is their Indigenous right, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands take a bare floor -- bare minimum view of what the current right to occupy land is. They say it does not include a right to permanent structures. Mr. Speaker, we have multigenerational trappers and harvesters who have permanent structures on public land. That is their right. We have to accept that. We have to move beyond this bare minimum approach to Indigenous rights. And the first step is pausing those fees and pausing those collections and resolving this issue once and for all, Mr. Speaker.
With that, I want to thank the Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes. I want to thank her Indigenous government for bringing this up. And I encourage the Department of Lands and the GNWT to listen and provide a solution to this. There is creative ways that we can make sure we are not ruining the credit of our Indigenous harvesters and trappers, and we are not putting them in the same bundle of rights in the same categories as settlers who want leases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.