Thanks, Mr. Chair. Are these positions now going to be permanent at the archives, then? Is that the case? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The understanding is that they will be indeterminate unless we decide to give back control to the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not advocating either of those options. Look, I am one of the few MLAs who has probably ever been over to the archives, and it is a well-used facility. It is a great institution there. They are great people. They know the history of the Northwest Territories, and I am glad to hear that those two positions are going to be made permanent because we have a wonderful collection. It is well-used by researchers from southern Canada and even some local people once in a while. I don't care where the funding comes from, wherever, but I am very pleased to hear that those two are permanent positions. I thank the Minister for the response. Thank you. That is all I have.
Thank you. Next, I have Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions on the language. I know that there is a lot of discussion on languages, and I know that the department is basically working with the land claim organizations to do language programs, but I think that we need to do more. Even though the organizations are doing the best that they can with the funding that they get, it is never enough funding.
I think we have a good opportunity here. In the last Assembly, I had the opportunity to travel with the Minister to Alaska. There is a great program that they have there with the Gwich'in language, and it is a shame that we don't send people there to take that course and get their certificate in the Gwich'in language or another language. Inupiat is the same thing, just a different dialect, but that is what I would like to see in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are never enough languages. It is a concern right across Canada, and it should be a concern for all of us MLAs. We do give language monies out. We have regional language coordinators in every region. We give money to the Aboriginal governments. We give money to the education system to Indigenize our grade schools. I am also very hopeful, Mr. Chair, because we have begun the visioning exercise. I am hoping that people throughout the Northwest Territories, including the MLAs here, will identify, hopefully, that Indigenous languages are something that we need to look at in our post-secondary, as well. Although, like I say, that is my wish. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Anything further, Mr. Blake?
Yes, thank you. Any time our students want to travel out for school, it is always a challenge with SFA. I think that we should have a separate pot of funding for students who are taking Indigenous languages. That would be a real benefit to them, to take those courses, especially if you have to go to Alaska, for example, because that is one of the best programs out there. That should be available to people who want to take that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do agree that we need to support anyone who actually looks at taking courses in Indigenous languages. Thanks to the federal funding, we have changed our courses that are available right now at Aurora College. It used to be a certificate program in language revitalization, and now we have bumped it up to actually being a degree program. Oh, it's still a certificate.
The other thing that we have is we have expanded our scholarships to provide for students [microphone turned off]...program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will remind everyone that, if the light is on, your sidebar conversations can likely be heard, just so people know. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. Next, we have Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question for the Minister relates to page 37. I am wondering if she could tell us the last year in which arts organization operating funding was increased. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will have to get back to the committee on when the last increase to the arts organization operating funding was. You will see in the mains that there is $200,000 provided to the NWT Arts Council. It was a supplemental last year, in this mains. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The page that I have has $460,000 for the next fiscal year, this fiscal year, and the fiscal year prior to that. My question really is, given the importance of festivals and cultural events to tourism and the growth in tourism, whether the Minister has considered increasing this line item to drive that segment of our economy. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think that we do need to look at our arts community. It is another diversification of the economy. It is something that I think we need to support. We are just finalizing the Arts Strategy, which will be provided. It is just going through Cabinet and will be going to standing committee. Then, after that, we are developing an action plan. Within that action plan, we will identify increases as needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
That is good news. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear that I am talking about arts organization operating funding, not NWT Arts Council funding. Are we talking about the same thing? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. The strategy goes across all sectors. It does not just look at the arts council; it looks at the arts community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister just confirm that the work, including the action plan, will be done during the remainder of this Assembly? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working very closely with the NWT Arts Council. We are just finishing up the Arts Strategy, the draft, which will have to go to standing committee. As soon as that is approved by standing committee and here, then we will be actually working on the action plan. I will try to get that done in this Assembly, but I can't commit that it will, because it is important that we get this right. Like I said, the strategy came across my desk, and I flipped it right back and said, "Let the Arts Council." I have committed to actually working very closely with the arts council on this, and I want to honour my commitment to the Arts Council. We will try our best, but we can't commit that it will be completed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you for that response. Nothing further.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Next, Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the previous speaker and the Minister with regard to starting to talk a little bit about the NWT Arts Strategy, because that is what I would like to touch on maybe a little bit more.
To what extent you can, can you share with us a little bit about what the Arts Strategy will undertake? What I mean is that I am not just interested in doing some of the good things that we have done in terms of assigning resources and particular finances to a number of the arts festivals and artists themselves, et cetera, but whether we are looking at opportunities to use resources to diversify arts, how we will tag arts into tourism, how we will promote and exploit Indigenous culture in terms of the arts? I would like you, if you can, to maybe explain a little more to us exactly what the strategy will be undertaking. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategy provides a recognition of the link between the arts and tourism and what that brings to the economy of the NWT. The strategy also speaks to a more modern view of the arts and a reflection of the fact that, in today's digital age, arts and artists' pursuits look different than they have in the past, so the strategy is really trying to update our perspective on the arts, as well.
Really, a very strong link to the economy and to tourism is presented in the strategy, as well as a recognition of traditional pursuits and how those are reflected and their vitality within the arts generally. That kind of gives you a general sense of what is contained in the strategy. As the Minister indicated, we do have a draft very close to being ready to share with standing committee for their input, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Okay. That is great, Mr. Chair. Thank you, and I appreciate the additional insight. Just one last quick question, then. Clearly, we are doing a lot of interdepartmental work on making sure that the appropriate departments are contributing to the strategy. Just to confirm that? Then, secondly, maybe a little bit, if you can, about what we are expecting to see in an action plan would be nice to hear, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we worked interdepartmentally, especially with ITI. We have shared the document in draft with the deputy minister. We are waiting to bring it to Cabinet and then to standing committee. The action plan actually moves forward. I think there are five areas in the strategic plan. The strategic plan is more of an overarching document, and then the action plan really is very concrete: how are we going to achieve these goals that we have set forth? The strategic plan is the overarching goals; the action plan is where the work is going to be done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Vanthuyne. Seeing nothing further from committee, I will call this activity. Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage, and languages, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $17,883,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Please turn to the third activity, early childhood and school services. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions relate to page 41, starting with early childhood development and learning. I notice that there is an $800,000 decrease from the revised estimates for the current fiscal year compared to the next fiscal year. I am wondering if the Minister can tell us why funding in this area has gone down. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gareau.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Members may be aware, we received funding from Canada for the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. It is a multi-year funding agreement from the Government of Canada. The year-over-year difference, the $80,000 decrease is just really reflective of the action plan we have developed with Canada, the activities we want to fund, and what year those activities will be undertaken. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you to Ms. Gareau for that response, and also for catching the extra number there. Could she please provide more detail about the difference between the projects in the two years? Thank you.
Thank you. Directing this to Ms. Haener, I take it. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funding flow is also reflective of the fact that we signed the agreement very late in its first year. Because of that, we were able to shift some resources from that first year to the second year, because of how late we signed. What the spread of the dollars is also reflective of is the recognition that some of the funding is being used to support things like increased inspections. There are resources associated with that where we would have to spool up at the start with human resources for that kind of thing.
I am just looking at the briefing notes here to provide a bit more information. There is also a reflection of junior kindergarten that is also captured within this funding area. The expenditures there would differ from year to year, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
