Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to marketing, what plans does the department have to assist the fishers in marketing their fish outside of FFMC? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not intimately dialed into the marketing plans for the fishers, but we are continuing to partner with the FFMC to do so, and we have a large capital cost that we're going to roll over, the $500,000, so I think that would be more in the capital budget where we would be discussing the plant itself. However, I'm committed to promoting NWT fish and promoting it locally as well as interprovincially, interterritorially. Yes, we will work hard with them to promote our fishers. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It was mentioned about safety, as well. What plans does the department have to ensure that, when the fishers go out, there's some safety component to it? Because we know what happened in the past, especially last year. It was a tragedy of what happened. In looking at that, I read an article, probably that was done 15 years before, by Alex Morin, and he said exactly the same words as to what actually happened out there. He said, ""This is going to happen," and it happened. I just want to make sure that those fishers who are out fishing are kept safe. What are we doing about it? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do work with the marine training centre on training as well as providing funding for safety programs and safety equipment around the fishers. I would agree, with my other hat on, WSCC, that I very much want to see the fishers stay safe. I do commit to the Member that, putting that hat on, I am going to have a conversation with WSCC soon about what we do to ensure that the fishing is a much safer industry. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like just to turn to agriculture. I had a chat with a few of the farmers in Hay River, and a number of issues come up. It is associated with cost, the cost of land leases, the cost of taxes for the land, the cost of power, the cost of fuel. It just makes it unfeasible to actually farm. Is the department looking at how to address that, and do they have any plans? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the mandate items for us to look at is reducing red tape, so I think that would be an area where we could actually be helping our agriculture sector, if we could help them sort of navigate some of the processes. I know we've advocated for some things around meat licensing and such on their behalf. We have about $1 million in funding. We have a Canadian agricultural partnership that we do work with. Agriculture and commercial producers, we provide funding for some of their equipment. We have programs that support their shipping, and we do feel that there was a good reduction in the red tape in conjunction with Health and Social Services around getting some of our commercial products out to the public. A great success story is the growers around Hay River. I recently purchased lettuce grown in Hay River in the co-op, so that was really nice. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess one issue that has come up in Hay River, as well, you have private sector, people trying to grow and run a business; and then, the other hand, and we have say, non-profits doing the same thing. How is the department going to address that issue? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is part of what we're doing under food security review, as well, too, with the agricultural association that's being created. I would imagine these are all conversations we will be having with them, that we would then be looking at their inputs on how do we navigate that line because I would not want to, any which way, shape or form, discourage anybody from growing food, or if they can share that food with others, whether that be small scale selling at a farmers' market versus the success story we were just discussing. We need to first figure out what is the situation. How many growers do we have that are sort of small scale producing and selling to friends versus a larger production? Once we have a good assessment of what we are doing, I think we'll be able to figure out how we go forward. I think there's room for everybody. I'm not looking to have preference of the commercial growers over the small scale growing. I would like to see everybody be able to take part in this. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minster. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to say a few words about the Film Industry Rebate Program on 203. I just listened to some of the comments from the Member for Yellowknife North, and they are good comments. When I looked at this, I circled this line item, and I covered all the numbers, looked at it, and thought, "I wonder what type of supports. How do we attract filmmakers? It's a good way to bring people to the North." I am like, "Okay. This might be a good opportunity here." We are always looking for opportunities to stimulate our economy to bring people, attract people, and bring people to the North. Outside of COVID, yes, I think there are plenty of opportunities there. We have lots of beautiful scenery in the North, a lot of beautiful areas to make films. I take my hand up, and I am like, "Oh. Okay."
I don't want to say this is a wasted opportunity, but I am going to say that there is future opportunity here to think about that seriously. I thought about Alberta, what they have done. I know that a lot of big, Hollywood productions go into Toronto, Vancouver, and they went to Alberta to film a lot of westerns. One of my favourites is Open Range, and they filmed that on the Stoney Reserve. There is a good partnership there with the First Nations. They work with the First Nations, and they made a wonderful film there. I couldn't help but think that is a direction we could go. I am not sure what government's role would be in that, but I would love to see that at some point.
I did have some questions, though, about the SEED, going down to that lower line item. Looking at it, I hope I don't step on any toes here, but my question for the Minister is: when was this policy last reviewed? Thanks.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Technically, it was just reviewed because we somewhat updated our guidelines for COVID. I do think that maybe what the Member is looking more for is an overarching, not just COVID-related review. I don't have the date of the last review, but I do commit that, as a new Minister, I do want to look at these types of programs and see where we can be doing better. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the Minister for the response. I think it's always important we always continually have that feedback with all our policies because things are always changing, always evolving. It's always keeping things up to date always. That is good to know. My next question is: when are we going to expect to see this overarching review of this policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do just have an update. It was last done in April of 2019. At that time, two years ago, they added a $75,000 increase for strategic initiatives. I just wanted to let the Member know that. I commit to doing this soon. SEED has become one of the largest conversations I have been having in the last while. I think that it is a great tool for us to use to build small business in the North. We have had lots and lots of conversation about how business is needed in the North. I commit to review the SEED program in whole. Let me get through COVID. I will perhaps say by the end of the year and looking at more of a strategic, long-term one for it, not this sort of smaller, incremental reactions that we have to do at the time to just move ourselves forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response. Just one more little, technical question from a line item on page 202, fees and payments. Actuals a couple years back on fees and payments were $277,000. Now, they are only $60,000. Why is that number a lot less than it was before? Marsi cho.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
One second, I just have so many pages here. Fees and payments, we had an increase of $6,000 that we had to move over to compensation and benefits. They were moved to reinstate a budget that was used to cover a lack of incremental collective bargaining salary increases. There was the delay with the negotiations, and we had to go and back-pay people. That had to get moved around in different areas in the funding. The bargaining salary increases included things like registration fees, professional memberships, miscellaneous fees, licences and permits, non-employee courses and training. We had an increase of $6,000 again. Sorry, that was the funds, again. We had a variance, a drop of $223,000. Ninety-eight thousand was the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program sales commission, and $128,000 was for a small businesses training and workshop. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have nothing further.
Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have been here eight months now. I don't know when we are going to stop using the excuse of being a new Minister or a new whatever because I voted for a lot of the people on the other side. I voted for them because I knew they had capabilities. Using the excuse all the time that they are a new Minister and not being able to answer the questions is no longer an excuse. Are we going to be doing this until Christmas or next year or whenever? I just want to make sure that we are all clear on that.
With that, I am excited about this page, also, 203. Business Development and Investment Corporation is an excellent entity. We have to ensure that the development side is also taken care of. I know you are going for a new CEO recruitment. I hope the person does have some knowledge of the North, but I also hope the person has amazing and new ideas, is absolutely neutral and objective, neutral and objective in understand people's needs, not one that goes in and thinks they can be a dictator in that job and not be able to be approachable by anybody in the -- because we are a small population in the Northwest Territories. If we are going to further our economic activities, both for small business, medium, and large, that person has got to be able to speak to all three on the same level. Those are very specific qualities that this person should have. I encourage you to ensure that, Madam Minister. On the line of $2,012,000, I was wondering if I could have the allocations by region for the funds. That is my first question.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry. Just flipping through the regions by funds. I will pass this over to Ms. St-Denis. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. St-Denis.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. There is a bit more detail further in the mains about BDIC, but it's really about the operating budget for the entity. Our regional offices take the loan applications for BDIC at the regional level in order to then forward that to BDIC for processing.
Thank you, Ms. St-Denis. Member.
Madam Chair, I would like to have the definite allocations by region. I also want to specify that we have had in the past in different regions. We used to have a neutral board before, an arm's-length board that looked after the disbursement of loans. I think when you have an arm's-length board that it's more of an input from businesspeople. I think that it's something to look at. I am not saying you have to do it, but I would like to see the options that we make sure that neutral, objective decisions are made for people, ordinary people, medium business, and large business. It's very important. If we are going to succeed in the economy, those are the kind of decisions that have to be made. I am sure you are quite aware of that. A lot of times, things are put forward, and it's only by one person's views. That is not the way to go. We are serving the people of the Northwest Territories to further the economy. We have to think more broadly. That has always been my objective in business. No matter where I've been, whether it was serving on the National Capital Commission or working with Aboriginal groups across Canada, it was always an objective view. It's extremely important that people are objective. You're going to be hiring a really important person, here, and I think that objectivity is very, very important.
The other thing I want to talk about is the aftercare for new business. I'm sure that there are some new businesses that are not going to survive. I would like to see a more personal and individual approach to some of these businesses for their aftercare. We want everybody to survive. It's very difficult in these times. You know, in a lot of places, the service industry is suffering; the hotels, the restaurants, the small clothing stores. Just people who we know, all of us. Like, even in Yellowknife, here. I've been to a lot of places before this happened and got to meet a lot of the businesspeople, and we have to be able to support these people. Individual aftercare is extremely important, on an individual basis. You know, you have staff. I'm not saying you have to go there. I'm saying that you have staff who should be approaching and listening to some of their concerns and making sure that we try to save every single business that we could, because we don't have a large business community in the North, especially small businesses. There are a lot of concerns. It's not only the big ones we have to save; we also have to save the small ones. That's just a point that I wanted to make with you.
The other thing I wanted to mention was I wanted to ask about the "support to entrepreneurs and economic development," that line, if I could just have maybe an idea of what that includes, a little bit more detail?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
[Microphone turned off].
Oh, sorry, you have to wait for the microphone. Are you going to ask that question, Member?
Could I ask the question now? Okay. I'm just wondering, Madam Chair, the SEED money, the allocation by region of the funds. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm actually going to respond to your first question about the BDIC by allocation. I do have that answer for you right now, by region. In the North Slave, we spent $1.07 million. In the South Slave, we spent $2.07 million. In the Sahtu, we spent about $20,000. In the Deh Cho, we spent $212,000. In the Beaufort-Delta, we spent $1.3 million. So that's the BDIC, and I'm just going to try to find in my many schedules the SEED one. My apologies, committee. All right.
With SEED, by region, I've got a few different breakdowns, here. Northwest Territories-wide, we've spent $366,000, or 9 percent of the share. So that would be one that doesn't fit sort of a specific region. In the Beaufort-Delta, we have spent $630,930, which is about 16 percent of the share. In the Deh Cho, we have spent $696,796, or 18 percent of the share. In the North Slave, we have spent $809,000, or 20 percent of the share. In the Sahtu, we have spent $733,000, or 19 percent of the share. In the South Slave, we have spent $719,000, or 18 percent of the share. I should just say that the Northwest Territories-wide ones are more the strategic types of initiatives that are larger. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Committee, we will take a short recess and we'll get back to the remainder of the Members' questions. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you, committee. Moving on to the Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regard to the Northern Food Development Program that they're talking about. We haven't really had that up in my riding, in the Beaufort-Delta. This year, you know, due to COVID-19, no tourism, nothing going on. Traditional foods, we used to have a lot of sharing between communities with the Inuvialuit and the up-river communities. For instance, Ulukhaktok has Arctic char and muskox; Sachs Harbour has muskox; Tuktoyaktuk has whitefish and beluga whales; Paulatuk has char and caribou. We have to look at things with a different approach. I'm just wondering if our EDOs, are they looking into something like working with traditional food swaps in between the communities for the COVID-19 days ahead in regard to that? That's my question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It appears that, under that fund, we spent $79,000 in the Beaufort-Delta. I'm not familiar with whether or not an actual sort of food-sharing or swapping program has been developed in that region, but I'm definitely interested in exploring something like that. Anytime we can have people eating as much country food as possible and, as well, keeping them on the land and traditionally harvesting, I think it's a great thing. This probably does have, I don't want to throw other Ministers under the bus, some overlap with ENR -- he's perking up back there -- abit of a conversation with ENR about how we could do harvesting and sharing food amongst different communities. I think that's a great idea, so I commit to taking that back and looking at that for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Nunakput.
