Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, I just want to make sure I'm looking at the right number. Non-renewable resource revenues, minerals, oil, and gas, I have $1.511, Madam Chair. Sorry, for last year, yes. For last year, Madam Chair, the numbers have been updated, and I think we are now expecting some small amount of royalties for this fiscal, given that Ekati has come back online and given some of the rebounding in the diamond markets. I don't know if I have that number available. Let me see if Deputy Minister Strand or Director Salvador do.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I expect that it should be released, I want to say, this session. "Imminently" is, perhaps, a safer way of putting it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To the extent that it appears as a line item, this particular line item program was sunsetting this year, and so that is why it does then continue to sunset. A lot of what it was being used for in the past was to support Indigenous governments or Indigenous organizations or community organizations to attend functions like roundup or PDAC, national-level conferences, which this year are not happening, so it was not an urgent item to need to have funded or renewed for this year. Again, it gives us that opportunity to conclude the review. There is some funding that can be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this point, this particular year, there wasn't a conversation around increasing for the arts festival. I don't disagree that there are opportunities to pivot online, and this funding is still sitting here and available for the support of the festival in whatever form it might be. There have been some important announcements recently from the federal government with respect to creative funding and arts funding specifically, COVID-related, COVID-inspired, perhaps. As we've often done, we want to make sure we're taking advantage of the federal dollars so that we can...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the change in actuals and the decrease there in the actuals was reflective of the fact that there was a sunset on the Slave Geologic Province exploration funding, but more generally speaking, there is a lot of leveraging that does go on with universities and a lot of contribution agreements that go through the Northwest Territories Geological Survey so that they can, indeed, leverage opportunities with universities. I am certainly happy to take away the idea of doing more. I also agree that this is an area that has, I think, tremendous growth potential in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it is still falling under the old legislation, which, again, I don't have in front of me. Madam Chair, I'm going to see if I can drive that back over to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. ECE and ITI are, indeed, working together on this. I do not believe there is specific funding allocated at this point. If I could propose to have it go to Deputy Minister Strand, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is obviously not money in the mains right now for the idea that the Member is suggesting. The film strategy, if it hasn't reached committee, is on its way across the hall. Once it has gone through that process, looking forward to an opportunity to receive feedback on it and to get it out to the public and to stakeholders. The subsidy program is one part of a program for supporting film producers. ECE has funding for arts. We have other funding for small- and medium-sized businesses. This isn't a one-stop shop for film. They have other ways to access our supports...

That's a challenging one to solve, Madam Chair. No, and I don't mean to laugh to make light. I suspect most people in this room would not disagree. Right now, the ITI-focused programming does tend to be project-specific or event-specific, whether it's direct under, for instance, the Northern Arts Festival or through the SEED programming that does tend to supply funding for events. Again, ECE and ITI work quite closely in terms of the arts strategy, and we've had some discussions about we have a great strategy. What will we do to ensure that there is the funding to meet its goals? I don't have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We were really just waiting for the IGC process, the intergovernmental council process, to be concluded with the protocol there. With that done, I will commit to getting a full outline of our expected timeline on this to the Member. Thank you.