Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Do you have any further questions, Member for Frame Lake?
Thanks, Madam Chair, no, other than I appreciate the information that has been provided by the staff. They know that I am a strong supporter of the facility and the functions that it performs, and I look forward to the next phase of the life of that particular institution. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the operations expenditure summary, looking at the 2018 actuals, and there is a decrease to now, the mains, of about $480,000 for the Indigenous languages and education secretariat. Would the Minister be able to explain that decrease in the last couple of years? Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister.
Thank you. Just one moment if you don't mind, Madam Chair? My apologies.
Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That relates to the grants that go out through that particular division, and there were actually more applications and more money out the door than was budgeted for, and so it's not a decrease in budget. The budget remained the same, but we actually spent more than we budgeted for in the year the Member is referencing. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. That's good that that's the case. Just moving along here, I'm looking at one other line here that kind of caught my eye. There's also a variance here from the 2018-2019 actuals, and the mains for this year for fees and payments, and 2018-2019 was $795,000, and now, this year, it's $371,000. Can the Minister explain the difference in that line is about? Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister.
Thank you. That's actually related to the overpayments referenced earlier by the Member, so the additional $500,000 that went out the door with the Indigenous language and education secretariat, that's reflected in that same number right there, as well as the changes in the other program detail lines.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. I have nothing further.
Thank you. Are there further questions on this section? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I had to Google, just so everyone is aware. Charles is the Prince of Wales. I didn't actually know that. I would be very happy if we changed the name of that. Talking about the Crown is one of my favourite topics. Madam Chair, my question is, I really think and need to emphasize that our museum is for the entire territory, and we have some of the most unique, cultural history in the world here, and our museum's job is essential to preserving that. I wanted to speak briefly about revenues.
I love the museum. Increasingly, it has more and more tourists going through it, and I want to emphasize that I think it should always be free for the Northwest Territories residents. I look at all the tourists who go in there, and it's completely free, and I wonder why we're not making some money off of that, and perhaps it could be in a revolving fund or something. My question is: has there ever been any consideration about charging those tourists to access the museum?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.
Thank you. Currently, the museum is free for everyone. It's by donation. I am sure many people, if not most people, don't donate anything, but as far as the history of those discussions, if you don't mind, I can hand it over to my deputy minister, Ms. Mueller.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we have discussed, for a number of years now, the pros and cons of having a fee for outside NWT residents, and to date, the discussion has always been that it's a place where people can really learn about our territory, about the people, and the culture. To date, the feeling has been that donations give people an opportunity, if they wish to, donate what they can. They can, and if not, they can still come and enjoy without having a fee. The reason for that is, a fee often does present barriers for certain individuals or families from coming in and participating in the activities as much as they want. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to hear those conversations we're having. I think I'm kind of on the side that we should be charging. Can I get a sense, do we know what the donation total is on an annual basis?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.
Thank you. I'd like to hand it back to Ms. Mueller.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It does fluctuate, but more and more, each year, we have more visitors going through the museum, and on average, it's around $10,000 or $11,000 that we do receive in donations, and we put that money back into our education programming. That's how we use those funds. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is an issue I will look into further and have further conversations with whether we can either increase that donation amount or look what other museums are doing. I wanted to move onto the line item $6,285,000 for Indigenous languages. Can I just confirm that this is all GNWT funding, or is this also federal funding in there?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.
Thank you. Could the Member please clarify which page he's on?
Page 37.
If you don't mind, I'd like to hand it over to Mr. MacDonald.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Member wouldn't mind, just pointing me to that line item again? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the funding for Indigenous languages, $6,285,000. I believe this is largely flow through money to Indigenous governments to run their programming. I know there's been a number of federal increases to Indigenous languages programming. I'm just wondering if this is all GNWT money or this includes the federal funding that exists for Indigenous languages.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Mr. MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this is the territorial funding. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm glad to see we're spending $6,285,000 on Indigenous languages. I believe Mr. Norn already asked some questions about how this was oversubscribed one year. I know there's more and more federal money on the table, and I believe every time we invest in this, it allows our Indigenous governments to leverage that additional funding for Indigenous languages. I guess my question to the Minister is: are there any plans to increase this amount?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.
Thank you. The funding is provided by the federal government, pursuant to an agreement that is ending this month, actually, I guess, March 31, 2020. Initial discussions from what we can tell, it looks like there will likely be a one-year extension of the status quo. After that, or during that time, we will enter into negotiations. We will be looking for more money, obviously. We always do. We still have to figure out what the feds want to do. With the reorganization of federal departments, we're not quite sure what their direction is going to be. What they might like to do is fund directly to the Indigenous governments and not flow through the government, so that's an option as well. We're still in the very early stages of this. The bottom line is that we would like more money for Indigenous languages. I always appreciate it when the Members bring up this topic and discuss it because I think it's vital to so many people in the territory, and something that we need to focus on sooner than later. Thank you
Thank you, Minister. Further questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate those comments, and the standing committee will be taking out the Official Languages Act, so I look forward to continued conversations. I, ultimately, believe that we don't necessarily need to be the flow through. If the feds are willing to fund the Indigenous governments directly, that's great.
I wanted to switch gears here and talk about the line items. Arts, organizations and operations funding and the NWT arts council. There's a number of fundings for arts here. Just, generally, do we have a sense for every dollar we invest in the arts, what the return on investment is?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.
Thank you. Currently, we do not, and I can't speak for ITI because ITI is also involved in the arts, but that is something that we are looking at with ITI in the development of the new arts strategy. That's something I've always been critical of myself. I appreciate art. I appreciate artists. If we're doing it as an investment in the economy, are we getting a good bang for our buck? We're doing that work to find out. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it, and I look forward to seeing that. I believe it is quite a high return on investment, especially up here, once again, if you get an artist to meet certain qualifications, they can go access Canadian Council for the Arts funding.
I just want to get a sense of how much of this arts funding is for artists in communities, because I believe that's really the market we need to look to develop.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister.
Thank you. I don't have a breakdown in front of me of the distribution of these funds, but that's definitely something we can get to Member. We might be able to get it by the end of the day. I know we have people watching and working furiously and sending us emails. We can get that done, and hopefully, I'll be able to have an answer for you later on. Thank you.
