Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI -- Industry, Tourism and Investment -- on the film industry. I’m pleased to see that the Minister has met with representatives of the multi-media and film industry to discuss development opportunities and report the status of the promised review of the industry development and support requirements. I’m also pleased that the Minister committed to develop the terms of reference in consultation with the public. These are great moves, great progress. Can the Minister indicate yet when those draft terms of reference will be available for review?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was quite pleased to be able to work with some of the Members from the other side to help organize a meeting with some of the northern filmmakers. I thought we had a very productive meeting and we shared concerns from all sides. I think we found a way to go forward.
We’re currently drafting terms of reference that we will share with everybody that attended and anybody else that’s interested. My expectation is that we’ll be able to get them out within a month.
I appreciate that. I also appreciate that the Minister indicated that he would work hard to incorporate the findings of this review into the business plans. That’s my interest in the time frame. Obviously those draft business plans are due in just a few short months. Timelines for the inclusion are, therefore, pretty tight. Can the Minister say what schedule he has set or will be setting for the review to be completed and allow that to happen?
At the meeting we talked about trying to dovetail with the Government of the Northwest Territories business planning process and the call has gone out already. As you know, working with the new initiatives we’ve put in place a marker already. In the discussions that we had in our meeting it became quite obvious that there are different parts to filmmaking and there are different parts to it. I think as part of the terms of reference, we will be looking at all the different sectors of filmmaking. My expectation is that through a combination of existing programs and using the business planning process and concluding the review in time, that we’ll have something that has some meat that we can work together to expand the Northwest Territories film industry.
I appreciate, then, that the review would likely be moving towards completion by the fall so that things might move forward in the plans. I understand from industry reps that the current requirements for ITI support programs, such as the need to file three-year business forecasts, don’t recognize the reality of this industry that moves from project to project. This obviously points out the need for industry-specific programs as our sister territories have recognized. Will the Minister ensure that the unique operating conditions of this industry are, therefore, addressed in the terms of reference and any recommendations for targeted support programs?
It was pointed out to us a number of examples where the approach that we’re taking is resulting in missed opportunities. Certainly we’ve taken their input very seriously. We would look at expanding a film commission so that it really works and also to having people that are very familiar and have worked in the industry. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to collect an Oscar one of these years.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think there’s any question that we’ll be collecting those. We’ve already had people down at the big…or the Juno awards or the Oscar awards, filmmakers down there from Yellowknife. We’re well on our way, and with the Minister’s support I have no doubt we’ll achieve that.
ITI’s annual publication -- my last question -- the economic review does not contain, currently, information on the value and activity of the arts and culture industry such as film and media production. I’d like to conclude here by asking the Minister if he will take steps to begin to collect the data essential to monitoring the value and development of the industry and include that in that annual publication.
I’ll work very closely with my colleague, the Minister of ECE, and make sure that we do provide for this coverage in the appropriate places.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
