Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the sixth season launch of Ice Pilots. I obviously have some questions for the Minister responsible, ITI. They handle the film industry in the Northwest Territories.
Can the Minister indicate to us what his department is currently doing to encourage more film production in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve just completed a report, entitled “The Sector Analysis and Action Plan for Screen-Based Media Production in the Northwest Territories.” We’re going to use this information, the information gleaned in that report, as the basis for a film strategy for the Northwest Territories, which we hope to have completed by March of 2015. So a lot of work is continuing to move forward on this. Thank you.
We just received the report, so we haven’t had a full analysis of it.
Can the Minister indicate the revocations of the current industry that we have in the Northwest Territories and what kind of impacts and benefits we’ve been getting from that? Thank you.
Thank you. It’s just under $10 million, the annual figure that the film industry gives to the economy here in the Northwest Territories. That’s the latest figure that I have. Thank you.
Is there currently any funding available for film production? Like I indicated, we have Andrew Stanley and a small group of people that were creating a 10-part series.
Is there any funding available currently through ITI to do any of those types of projects? Thank you.
Thank you. We have our suite of business-related programs and services through ITI. In addition to that, we also have a new expenditure-based rebate program that we’ll be launching next month, November of this year. So we’re looking forward to seeing if that can be successful in helping to attract investment in the film industry here to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know it’s key for the film industry to have that encouragement here, but does the department currently have a link between the film industry and… I know Ice Pilots was very appealing to tourism. Is there a link that has the film industry and tourism tied together?
As I indicated, Ice Pilots has been the big attraction throughout Canada and throughout the world to come to Canada, come north, come fly on a DC-3. So, have we used that in our tourism promotion as well? Thank you.
Thank you. We have a film commissioner here in the Northwest Territories who works at the Department of ITI and she’s certainly very well-versed in the film industry, the advance of film production here in the Northwest Territories. Shows that have been filmed here in the Northwest Territories have a direct correlation with tourism, and she certainly is well-plugged into NWT Tourism and the tourism staff that we have at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
