Evidence of meeting #32 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fnpo.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Tax Commission
I think some of the start-ups, obviously, would have to come from the existing budget allocations. If there's a requirement for new moneys, it would obviously have to be in next year's budget.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
What budget allocations right now would apply to this process?
Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Tax Commission
I'm not the Aboriginal Affairs accountant.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
But something from in the department, which was just cut by $250 million.
Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Tax Commission
Yes.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
Okay.
On the difference between land management and your proposal, you stated that it's not possible to get a mortgage. Because lots of people.... Even lands under the Indian Act have a mortgage.
Explain the difficulty or what you're talking about, in terms of mortgages.
Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Tax Commission
It depends on where you are. In the Westbank community, it's relatively easy to get a mortgage because you're in a hot area for real estate development, and that's coupled with 99-year leases. If you're dealing with considerably shorter leases, for example in Kamloops, we have a 49-year lease in Mt. Paul industrial park, and so when people come forward and want to sell the lease or renew it, they say, “We want to turn the clock back”. Even if there are five years gone, they say, “Well, we want to start all over again”. You end up starting the clock over again, so that they can go to the bank and get a mortgage. But the quality of development isn't to its full potential, and that's what I want to get to. I want to be able to realize the full market value for the lands.
Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Tax Commission
The difference being that under a lease arrangement, you're going to be able to get 65% of its value, not 100%.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Ms. Bennett.
Colleagues, before we shut down the meeting, I just want to make you aware of one document that was distributed to committee members. This is a confidential document for committee members only, outlining those witnesses that we have not yet heard from and that committee members expected we would hear from at some point.
I just put that out there so that members can look at that over the next few weeks.
Other than that, I do want to thank you, Mr. Jules, for being here today, for answering our questions, and for certainly giving us a lot of food for thought.
Committee members, we'll now adjourn.