Debates of June 5, 2006 (day 5)

WHEREAS the vision for the NWT Arts Strategy is “to secure the stability of a vibrant arts sector that is integral to the economic, social and cultural fabric of the NWT and contributes positively to the quality of life within the NWT;"

AND WHEREAS government should contribute to the development, recognition and support of a vibrant artistic community;

AND WHEREAS a healthy artistic community creates economy, awareness and appreciation of northern culture;

AND WHEREAS there should be access to appropriate artistic expression in public places;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that the Government of the Northwest Territories establish a policy requiring it to spend the equivalent of up to one percent of the budget of each new GNWT building or major building renovation on northern art creations displayed or integrated into the design of that building;

AND FURTHER that the policy provide for the establishment of a selection process for deciding on acquisitions;

AND FURTHERMORE that the policy be in force by April 1, 2007.

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Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Motion is on the floor. Motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member from Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is my honour to provide this motion to the House for consideration. It’s just one of the things that constituents of mine and the artistic communities throughout the North have always been looking for assistance to help them develop their trade, their craft and, indeed, too, all the micro industries like all the basket makers in Fort Liard and the slipper makers in Wrigley and just throughout the valley, Mr. Speaker.

I had the opportunity to travel to Alaska, Mr. Speaker, and I saw this in action. We actually went to visit a hospital in Alaska and we toured the facility, it was a very nice facility. On every floor there was these glass display cases. There was, like, well, totem poles are still part of their culture in Alaska, there were all these arts and aboriginal crafts displayed everywhere and I said oh, that’s pretty neat that the hospital is taking the time to purchase these products. But they had indicated to me there was actually a law passed by the state legislature there that offers one percent…It’s actual law that one percent of all infrastructure be produced to purchase arts and crafts to display in their buildings. I thought what a huge opportunity to bolster our own arts and culture and industry in the North if we’re able to do that. So that’s why this motion is here before you today, Mr. Speaker.

I’d just like to say that it’s a long time coming I believe, because just back in my own riding we’ve got Nats’enelu, it was run by the notable Mr. Darcy Moses for the longest time, but it had to shut down just because he wasn’t able to turn over the product fast enough. It created a real good economy in Fort Simpson alone. It was called Nats’enelu, which means let’s sew together. Just using that as a base it just means that the people were able to get together and share stories, but most of all it was able to keep the sewing alive, the crafts alive and it just created a bit of an economy, but our North wasn’t prepared for it yet. There was not enough disposable income and even though they had just started the online sale of those products too, Mr. Speaker, but it really didn’t take off because it was five, even seven years ago, being online wasn’t a big thing, but they weren’t about to successfully use that. So eventually that Nats’enelu closed down in Fort Simpson and it remains vacant to this day.

We do have one small business in Fort Simpson that sells crafts, but it’s too small that it can’t really turn over the crafts enough. As well, the people that are sewing out there, the people that are making arts and crafts, and drums and snowshoes, there’s just not enough market for them and they’re just not turning over fast enough. As well as in Fort Liard, we’ve got a beautiful craft shop there. It’s big and with the help of our government we’re able to use that one and turn over the products fast enough, but it’s very a capital intensive marketing program for that.

Having a program like this by our government would be a huge shot in the arm for the arts and culture industry throughout the North, Mr. Speaker. Just take, for instance, we’ve got a $40 million courthouse scheduled for Yellowknife. If you take up to one percent of the value of that building, that’s $400,000, Mr. Speaker.

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Can you imagine a $400,000 shot in the arm for the arts and culture industry? It’s huge. We can create a mini industry and a sustainable industry. When I look at $400,000 I just see all these elders sewing away like crazy, trying to keep up the product to provide for this building.

Also in the news of late as well, about two months ago one of our famed northern artists had to leave the North because there was not enough work here in the North. By having this motion pass, by having our government support this type of industry is just one small way of bringing our northerners back and giving our northerners a place to do their business, a place to work and a place to expand on what was there.

As I was thinking about the motion here earlier today too, Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to mention that growing up as a child and watching my mother sew and do her arts and crafts and tan her moose hide, you know, it’s probably a story that’s given throughout all the small communities. You know, they keep saying it’s a dying art and lots of people spend lots of time and try to tan hides and take the time to bring their children out there and it’s very labour intensive. To keep it going is very hard work, but people aren’t doing it as much. I’m thinking perhaps because it’s time nowadays has to be done for other things. Time is spent in survival. We need money to run our households and I think a lot of people are leaning towards that way. But if we can make money from a hobby, all the better, and if we can make money from something that we love, something that’s ingrained in us, something that we were brought up with and it was around us all the time, then I say I support that 100 percent.

That’s something that my mother and father did. Like many small units throughout the North and back in the old days, is that they were independent, completely autonomous, independent and they only went to town to pick up the supplies they needed like sugar and salt, basic supplies, but everything else was made, Mr. Speaker. The blankets were made, the stoves were made. In fact, the stoves were made from discarded drums, from 45 gallon drums that were left by the surveyors back in those days, but everything was made. Canoes were made, paddles were made, dog sleighs were made, knives were made, pretty well everything that we needed to survive on the land was made. If we simulate this and if we bring it back and get our youth out there…

One of the things that Trout Lake always talks about is that we bring our children onto the land, we give them an option, you know, give them a choice of how they want their future to be. I often think about that and often share that with people as I travel throughout the North, Mr. Speaker, and they’re absolutely right and they’re absolutely on the right track. Even though we’ve got this new modern world where we have to work on a pipeline, but that’s not true. If we want to maintain a simple lifestyle with arts and culture, I believe that should happen and this is one small way in which we can do that. We can support this form of life and give our arts and culture a big shot in the arm, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I’m really proud to have this motion before us today. Mahsi cho.

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Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. The honourable Member from Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to add, also, my support for this motion and say a few words. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you the first time I heard this idea from my colleague Mr. Menicoche, I got really excited about it. I think it’s one of the most boldest, maybe quite not new because we are borrowing it from Alaska, but why not borrow something when you see it and you like it? I just think that this is one of the most meaningful things that I’m going to leave behind as a Member of this Legislature. I see this as a start of great things. It’s not only creating physical space, and of course I am urging the government to take this motion very seriously and implement this because I could tell you that this, more than anything else, will give them the legacy and they will be remembered forever for having created…

Hear! Hear!

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...arts and crafts industries. Mr. Speaker, I am very serious. Look at this building; look at this Chamber. When people come and visit, what do they remember? I don’t think they remember who is sitting in these chairs. They remember the beautiful artwork. They do remember that. Everywhere we go around the world people talk about how beautiful this Legislature is, because it’s more than a building. It’s a work of art and why can we not create that in every place that we build? Technology is there and it’s about matter of will and matter of priority. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a huge cost, you know, adventure. Mr. Speaker, I could tell you that this initiative, if the government accepts this, will help our community not only artistically and culturally, but economically. It will be, as Mr. Menicoche suggested, a shot in the arm; the catalyst to revive so many of our arts and crafts in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I am not envisioning some elitist, fancy, million dollar artwork. I have to tell you one of the privileges of being a Member is to go to communities and get to know the communities and get to see the communities. It’s really sad, Mr. Speaker, when we go to some communities where there is no market, no commercial activities. There are no stores. You have to go and try to find where we can get some arts and crafts. I know the thing is in every community, they are all sitting in people’s homes, houses, basements and garages. Why can we not display them? This policy, as I see it, will set an example of the GNWT buildings to create a space, create a home, not only in that building but in our minds that we give priority to artwork. How much art is sitting in the Prince of Wales Museum? They don’t have enough space to display all that. Why can’t we take them out and put them in our buildings? We don’t have to create a fancy museum to do that. I am hoping by the GNWT setting an example and implementing this policy, that other levels of government will see that this can happen; in municipal governments, aboriginal government buildings, because there will be lots of new aboriginal government buildings happening, diamond mines. I just think it’s growing and we should find room to entertain this.

I know a lot of Members want to speak about this. I really see this as a way and a concrete way, a very precise way, a very meaningful way, a very courageous way for us to preserve what we have, arts and crafts and everything else that’s happening to enhance what we have and to foster future growth of arts and crafts communities in the Northwest Territories.

I just can’t say enough for this. We will be pushing this and I would strongly encourage the Cabinet Ministers…I don’t know if they are taking this very seriously. I want them to take this very seriously and implement this by the deadline given in this motion; April 1, 2007. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, will speak in favour of his motion and I compliment my colleague Mr. Menicoche for picking this up in his travels and bringing it to us for our consideration.

Mr. Speaker, Ms. Lee has already referenced this Assembly, this Chamber, as an outstanding example. As I was thinking geographically around the Northwest Territories, I think one of the very few examples of a public building that has made an effort to bring the art of its peoples into the building and not just in the sense of hanging something on a wall or putting something in a display case, but truly bringing the materials and the styles and the shapes of the North into the Chamber.

Mr. Speaker, the theme wall behind you is a perfect example of that. The design is reflecting many things to many different people rendered in zinc, one of our non-renewable resources materials. The glass panels, again, art that has a function in here, very handsomely reflects some aspects of our northern country and our heritage.

When we think about outstanding public art in the rest of Canada and the world, there are things that have become icons, symbols that truly represent the people of a given nation. Things that were established with some controversy; we have public sculpture that has been ridiculed and run down. We have buildings, enormous structures, things like the Eiffel Tower that were not established easily by governments of the day, but they are enormously important symbols now if we take that one of the country, nation, and people of France. It’s something that I hope the government takes very seriously, not as jeepers, where are we going to find one more percent to roll into the capital cost of something, but something that can truly be looked at as part of the investment that we are making in the building as we have shown here, Mr. Speaker, in our Chamber where art can be combined with function and where it can be used to make that statement and reflect who we are, as much as Mr. Menicoche has said, provide an economic opportunity for artists and artisans to come together.

If I have a plea to add to this, it would be to think about this well in advance of the actual beginning or the start of a planning and approval process. Bringing art into the function and the story and the presence of our buildings is really where to start this kind of thing. I know that what we have here would not have been achieved, Mr. Speaker, if it hadn’t been for the architects, designers, thinkers and the planners of that time who said here is what we are going to do with this building and look at it.

So we have already done it. Let’s do some more of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to speak about the motion here today. I really do want to start out by commending the Member for Nahendeh for bringing this forward. For all the reasons he cited, I think this is a step in the right direction. Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting the motion today, but I just wanted to be realistic about a couple of things. That is, we can’t forget for one second that the Northwest Territories and our government operates basically on a fixed budget and I think this is another example of why it’s incumbent upon this government to finally reach a deal with Ottawa and get us some resource revenue, get us a deal so we can look at motions like the one Mr. Menicoche has raised today.

I know Mr. Menicoche was in Alaska recently. Alaska’s state revenue, 85 percent of it is based on oil and gas. There is some hope for the future here for the Northwest Territories, that we will get a deal, we will be able to move forward. But this is a good motion. I wish, like everybody else in this House, that we had a deal today and we could look at this. It’s a nice thing to have and it’s going to do wonders for arts and crafts communities throughout the Territories. There are more pros than there are cons, and I say good on Mr. Menicoche for bringing this forward and I look forward to supporting it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some people listening to this debate may think we have taken leave of our senses when we talk about our infrastructure and our capital deficit here in the Northwest Territories. However, I have a slightly different idea about how a motion like this and how artistic expression can be incorporated.

To me, I don’t quite envision taking a bunch of northern crafts and things and hanging them on walls and having them as an add-on. I think, again, this building is a perfect example of where the culture and the artistic expression is integrated into the building. So I would like to approach it from the point of view if you are going to build a building anyway, you are going to need materials. Why not choose materials in such a way, where possible, that reflect northern materials and northern content? We put out contracts for things. We say northern content. Why don’t we put out contracts that talk about artistic content as well; artistic content being integrated into the project from the beginning? I don’t know how that works for existing buildings. Maybe with renovations and things like that you could do that, but I don’t see us going out and acquiring a whole lot of small pieces of art and putting them here.

I like to decorate myself and I could see taking an item or an artefact and then you could design literally a whole building around it. The Thunderbird Centre in downtown Winnipeg, when you go by that, you don’t need to read a sign that says this is an aboriginal gathering place. It’s called the Thunderbird Centre and the roofline and the big thunderbird on the top of it, it’s all carved right into the roofline. That’s the kind of thing that I would envision, so I don’t see it as costing anything. This just requires architecture and some forethought going into the design and construction of buildings that should be truly northern and reflect northern culture and northern art. That is the focus that I would like to put on this.

So to our constituents out there who don’t think we have enough capital dollars to go around, I think if this is done on the front end and is integrated in, you need materials anyway. I think we could take any northern culture symbol and we could literally design buildings around them. I know it could be done.

I personally have probably the largest collection of northern art of anybody in this room. My kids say I am going to have to build my own museum to display it all, but it isn’t the kind of thing you can just take and plunk in any old conventional house. You need the right setting. We need to build buildings with the right setting for the kinds of things that are produced in the North. So I will support the motion. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the motion. The Honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to say that the government supports this motion. We support the principle of it and we won’t be voting on it today because it is a recommendation to government.

Mr. Speaker, support to our artists is something that we should be doing. In fact, our deputies have been working on an art enhancement policy and they will continue to work on that and would be happy to work with the Members on how we can make that an even better policy.

Mr. Speaker, art, in our view, isn’t something that should be left after you have done everything else and you have invested all your money and everything else and got it all perfect and then put money into art. I agree with some of the Members, that this should be incorporated in the way we do business.

So, Mr. Speaker, we will not be voting on this. We do take the motion very seriously. We like it, but because it’s a recommendation to government, we will not be voting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Handley. To the motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s my opinion that buildings are far more than bricks and mortar. They can breathe life into our community and certainly a policy like this will breathe life into the institutions we know as government.

Mr. Speaker, a public art scale of this mass will change the culture and the way we do business and although it looks like a little piece of paper, I think it goes far beyond that. It will define us for generations to come.

From my time being a Member here for the last three years, the Leg is truly an example of doing things right and doing them upfront as opposed to trying to fix the problem later. How many times have I stood in the entranceway of this Great Hall and people from around the world, not just the Northwest Territories, come in and say they are in awe that an Assembly would take this much attention to taking and embracing its community. So from the wood trim to the things that have been mentioned such as the backdrop in the aisle, people notice that. I think it really breathes life into our institution.

I would like to see Cabinet support this. The Premier has quite clearly said the Cabinet’s intent is they like the idea. I am sure they will go back and assess it as they may. Cabinet always finds money when they want to do something. This is something that will create a legacy for everyone, not just Cabinet, not just this side. This will be here for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I often look around this Assembly and see that we are missing the 200 to 300 to 400-year-old piece of item, that piece of furniture that was dragged across the country. It had Sir John A. MacDonald’s boots on it. It got chipped on its way over by maybe Premier Ralph Klein, who knows? We don’t have infrastructure here that creates legacy, but an arts policy will create a legacy 200 or 300 years from now. We will be looking at how smart this Assembly was to put culture and art in its buildings. We will be able to look much further into the way the people enjoy working in buildings and enjoy visiting buildings that have an artistic flare to them.

Mr. Speaker, in short, I truly believe art defines us. It is the essence of what it makes us truly be from day to day. It’s a policy that we need to embrace and I certainly fully support it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague Mr. Menicoche for putting the motion forward. I will be supporting the motion. I thought about it quite a bit, but listening to some of my colleagues I think it’s important that we keep our artistic values in some buildings here. When you walk across in the hallway, you see Mabel Ruben who has a nice painting, and those kinds of things are really valuable to buildings like this. So I think I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. To the motion. I will allow the mover of the motion to have some closing comments. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my honourable colleagues and Cabinet for all the support that this motion is receiving. Once again, it’s an idea, a thought that is long overdue for our northern government to support. Often all our budget doesn’t include anything for art. So this will go a long way in stimulating all our industries to revive our arts and culture sector and to give a lot of the elders out there who say we are losing touch with the elders and the old ways. That is the same for arts and culture, Mr. Speaker. So this is a huge way in which our government will stimulate and revive that sector.

Once again, I would like to thank the House as a whole for supporting this motion and I will look forward to the vote that’s coming up. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is on the floor and is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

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