Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. In recent comments to the media around the relief given to the diamond mines as of late, $11.2 million in property tax relief in specific, the Minister has said that this is about maintaining stability for workers, families, communities, and Indigenous governments that rely on this sector. I don't doubt that, Mr. Speaker. But will the Minister consider tax relief for other working families that are struggling to keep food on the table, a roof over their heads, and bills paid in the face of economic pinch that all Northerners are feeling? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this recently introduced measure was fairly targeted, and it was temporary. This is intended to be for one year only in the face of $300 million in losses to this industry that keeps people employed in the Northwest Territories. But to be clear, Mr. Speaker, what we did was we did not completely wipe out the fact that the mines are going to continue to pay property taxes. They are just paying a bit less. They were, up to this point, other than pipelines, which had the highest mill rate, the mineral resource sector faced the second highest mill rate, significantly many times higher, in fact, than that of the education mill rates in other communities and so we just brought their mill rate down to something that's a little bit closer to what the majority of folks pay. And, again, Mr. Speaker, that is for the coming year only. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I am pointing to the relief measures for the diamond mines not because I don't believe that that isn't necessary, I do believe that's necessary, however there are lots of people who don't work in that industry who are struggling, and I'm curious if this Minister has anything in her back pocket for perhaps the next round of budget that we'll be considering real and tangible ways that we can help working families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are actually just having begun the budgets dialogues process which gets feedback from residents about areas of particular need or pinch and what we might be able to see in terms of changes to the budget for the upcoming year. At this point, I don't have any preannouncements to make about next year's budget. I can certainly say that I hope people are tuning in and participating in the dialogues process so that we can get a sense of where there maybe some opportunities to improve our processes and peruse the budget for the benefit of all going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we're always having a budget dialogue in this room and in this House, so -- but thank you for that, and I do appreciate that effort that the Minister does every year.
I suppose my question, then, would be if she doesn't want to presuppose what the outcome of that -- of those budget dialogues would be, could she explain, perhaps, some of the impacts that previous relief packages have helped our residents in times of intense need, such as COVID, such as the evacuation; how are we learning from those experiences for the economic shocks to come? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll try to be brief, Mr. Speaker. I know we were all given some warnings on being so, and I'm probably the worst at that. Well, Mr. Speaker, it's a tricky one. We obviously during COVID saw a number of different types of relief issued in terms of industry specific or sector specific, or aviation sector for example, but also had money that went into the pockets of residents and didn't always find that that was perhaps the best form of providing people the supports that they, in fact, required. So, you know, and then, of course, during evacuation, we were able to bring forward very quickly different packages and even so didn't even always meet the needs of everyone in those times notwithstanding the efforts that the public service had to try to fill gaps. And so with that, Mr. Speaker, I'd say really often where we find ourselves is gap filling, identifying areas of particular need or acute need or special need, and then trying to ensure that we always have the fiscal capacity to fill those needs. And last but not least, Mr. Speaker, is always targeting those who we find have the most need.
So for instance back to perhaps the original question, which I didn't really answer, but around tax relief, Mr. Speaker, there are programs -- and I hope people use them because they don't always know about them. This is the time to talk about them. Seniors and disabled persons have property tax relief. There is a property tax arrears program that folks should make use of if they're in a situation where they have high arrears. And, Mr. Speaker, I know there's work happening in housing right now to see what they can do to bring their processes online so that they too are offering arrears opportunities and arrears relief opportunities. So, again, hoping folks can participate in any engagements there and hoping that we can continue to fill those gaps as they arise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
