Nunavut capital’s error-ridden tax list: changes coming in 2017

Iqaluit’s deputy mayor, Romeyn Stevenson, says city councillors have made moderning their annual tax arrears list a priority for 2017. The latest version of the list, released in December, mistakenly listed people who’s taxes were still owing for 2016. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Iqaluit’s deputy mayor acknowledges that mistakes were made with the city’s latest tax arrears list, but said councillors are setting a priority to modernize tax collection and correct the list for future years.

“The city made a mistake with this list,” deputy mayor Romeyn Stevenson told Nunatsiaq News, Dec. 21. “Going forward, we won’t.”

The City of Iqaluit’s 2015 list of unpaid taxes was released earlier in December, months late, reporting over $3.4 million in unpaid taxes by Iqaluit residents.

But the annual “deadbeat” list mistakenly included some Iqalungmiut who hadn’t yet paid their 2016 taxes but who are not overdue.

And other outstanding tax bills on the list are attached to the names of dead people but included by legal necessity. Those will never be collected, Stevenson said.

“We may need to go to the Government of Nunavut and ask them to allow us to forgive some of them, because it would be impossible to collect,” he said.

“In the end, it’s lost city income, but there’s no point in carrying something for 15 years in your books that’s never going to be collected.”

Iqaluit, along with its newly elected mayor and council, ushered in 2016 with a crippling deficit of at least $8.2 million brought on by years of mismanagement.

But in the second half of the year, financial reports released by the city hinted at signs of recovery with some city funds operating in surplus.

Stevenson says it’s important to modernize the tax arrears list if only to show that the outstanding $3.4 million isn’t a cure-all for the city’s lagging deficit.

“It’s a misconception that if we only could recoup all of this money we’d be able to pay for other things,” he said.

“Unfortunately some of the $3.4 million is people that shouldn’t be on the list and will probably just pay their taxes by the end of this tax year, but there’s also the impossibly uncollectible ones.”

Stevenson confirmed that the city is negotiating with local banks to streamline its collection of taxes through mortgage payment—a popular option for many Iqaluit homeowners.

And in 2017, the city will also look into providing optional direct withdrawal for Iqalungmiut who want to automatically pay their taxes electronically.

“The city [would also] like to come up with a system where people can sign up for e-notifications for all their bills, be they taxes or water,” Stevenson said, adding that he hopes the system will be in place by this summer.

The hope is that 2017’s tax list will be more representative.

“Having an accurate number would make it much easier [for the city] to say ‘These are the numbers of people who actually haven’t paid their taxes, who probably should, and let’s go after them properly and follow the right channels,” Stevenson said.

Collection agencies may also be used in the future, he added.

Stevenson said he’s optimistic about the city’s current ability to implement the needed changes.

“I’m really hoping that in 2017 things will change about that list, because we have actively met with the GN about it and talked,” he said.

“I think that things will go forward in a way they haven’t gone forward before.”