Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If you are a community, you would go through Community Futures. You might consider the Community Futures Regional Relief and Recovery Fund. If you are an individual, then you certainly may want to start, obviously, with CanNor, which is one of our great federal partners; go to NWT Tourism. There are quite a number of different pots that might apply, depending on the nature of what's being sought. Perhaps I will send that to Deputy Minister Strand to just outline some of those specifics.
Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Member has probably realized, we did have the GRIT program this year, which was very successful and oversubscribed. We recognize that the tourism sector is still at risk, so we did release, just last week, some top-ups for those that had reached the top with the feds. For example, on Monday, I have a three-hour call with CanNor and the three northern territories, and tourism is on the agenda. We don't know what that looks like yet. We are trying to communicate that our operators do not need more loans; they need more relief. We are alive to that, having conversations right now with what might be needed to keep them alive until it reopens. I am hoping that we will be able to provide more details when we get there. We are definitely alive to that, and it's at every conversation that we have. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that response. It's nice to hear there is the concern for some of our companies, our tour operators. I mentioned in my budget address that my biggest fear right now is that the direction we are going is, at some point, we are going to have to have a triage, and I really don't want to be put in the position, with my colleagues here, to have to pick and choose which companies and tour operators, et cetera, get to stay afloat and who doesn't. I really hope that we can get ahead of that. My next question is: I heard the Community Futures Regional Relief and Recovery Fund. Can the Minister just briefly describe what that fund is?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Community Futures Regional Relief and Recovery Fund: the purpose there is to fund Community Futures organizations, which are in individual communities across the Northwest Territories and specifically with respect to COVID-19 impacts on those communities, outside of the regional centres in particular, so anything from short-term stability for the communities, various economic readiness activities. It includes small, repayable loans to some of the local small- and medium-sized businesses. Again, it's an infusion of funding to those Community Futures organizations that is really dedicated to some COVID relief specific to them. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
If somebody is struggling in this area, when can they start to apply to a program such as this? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Each Community Futures organization does have a fair bit of latitude to administer their programs, and I would suggest that they immediately contact their Community Futures organizations in the community that they are in, knowing, of course, too, that there are certainly opportunities directly to ITI, that if certain things don't fall neatly within the Community Futures, there's a number of other programs still specific to COVID relief available. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for that. This is going to be important, and I'll say it again, I really don't want to be put in a position where we have, for lack of a better word, an economic triage. I'm moving along here. I'm looking at some of the other items here with film and arts. I think these are really, really important items. Arts, I think, are great. Before I went into office, I did some small film, and I did a couple of small horror films, H-O-R-R-O-R, just to make sure everyone heard me right there. It was a lot of fun. I think I encourage anybody who wants to go into the arts, and it's always a good thing to learn and for the youth, even older, to go and explore. It just seems like these two items could be a lot larger. Is there any appetite for these two line items to be larger in the future? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I assume it's the film industry rebate program and the Great Northern Arts Festival is what we're looking at now. Yes. Thank you. Madam Chair, we're definitely looking at the film industry rebate as well as the Great Northern Arts Festival. With respect to the film industry, I'm quite pleased to say that with the film strategy coming out imminently again and knowing that we have right now a fairly strong emergent film industry, of course, yes, I'm more than happy to say that we'd like to consider more money, but money does not grow on actual trees. We want to look at where the strategy takes us and get that out into the public and get the reactions to it and advance that forward. Once that strategy's out circulating, I think, at that point, we'd be in a better position to determine what type of future funding is most appropriate to achieve the goals. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just finish off with a comment. There are jurisdictions. You look at other areas in Canada, like B.C., Alberta, you see some very cool country and western movies as of late, and you see Toronto. They really, really promote. Their governments invest money into their areas or to try to bring in foreign money. I think there should be some opportunity here, something that ITI and the Minister should consider at some point. I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. I'll take that as a comment. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's good to have the department back in the House. My question I'm just going to start with, I think, first with the BDIC on page 210. There's a $2 million budget for the BDIC. I know that the BDIC was kind of a bit almost on hold as far as when they were looking for the CEO and wanted to wait on that to get a new direction going. I know that you're in strategic planning or they're within strategic planning within the BDIC. Can the Minister speak a little bit to where that's at, and how much of the budget for the BDIC is going towards the strategic planning at this point? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Where they're at right now, there was a session before the winter break, and there's been a second session after. Sorry, by session, it's a strategic planning session that brings in all of the board members who are from across the Northwest Territories together to be at in-person meetings for the full board again. Two rounds of that, the second one was just, I believe, last month, if not maybe late in January. I am told that I can expect a summary report from them fairly soon as a result of those two sessions. I don't, however, know, Madam Chair, what the total cost of the strategic planning was off the top of my head, so I will commit to getting that information back to the Member.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That would be great. I would like to see a bunch of money. Just more as a comment. I would like to see, I'm not so much concerned that those businesses make money in the BDIC but that we start thinking about all the indirect dollars. I know the department knows where I stand on that, so I'll move on. My next question, then, would be moving onto the Northern Food Development Program on page 211. I note that the number is pretty standard across the board. I think it was a $4,000 increase. Given that COVID highlighted food security issues even more so in the North and potentially had disrupted supply chains, et cetera, as well as food supply issues in the South with the culling of animals and the pouring out of milk, does the Minister maybe, perhaps, think that there should be more money put into this area? I'm curious to know why it's been left at just this level given the importance of it and the fact that that's been highlighted through COVID? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We are, right now, working with the Department of Health and Social Services as well as ENR, and I think others, actually, towards a food strategy for the Northwest Territories, and a lot of work has, in fact, been done on that recently. There's been an inventory done around food security programming led by ITI, and recently, a poverty round table hosted by Health and Social Services. All of that information is being put together through an ADM working group so that all the departments, again, continue to understand what each one is doing so that we can best respond across both the commercial side of food security as well as the anti-poverty side of food security, and respond to it.
I am expecting that there will be a fair bit more information detailing the work of the government in, again, fairly shortly order, knowing that it's coming through the system now. Once we have that, again, we're in a better position to say whether or not more funding is required at present. The actuals were actually undersubscribed from 2019 and 2020 as compared to the main estimates here, but I know there's again funding in other departments, as well, to support this. For the moment, it doesn't appear from the actuals that there's been a lack of funding. What there is happening now is better coordination between departments. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Just remember, we still have our translators translating, so if you guys can slow down. Member for Great Slave.
Yes. Slow down but use less words so you don't take more of my time. I get what you're saying. I don't necessarily always believe, though that an -- it's been a long few weeks -- undersubscribed program necessarily means the need is not there for it, and I would maybe have a look at whether or not it's undersubscribed in that people aren't aware of it or there's barriers to applying on it because I just can't believe that there wouldn't be a need for this program? With that and, actually, it reminded me of a question I just forgot to ask you about the BDIC was: both of these are sort of in that. You've gone out. You're collecting information. You have either consultants or others compiling that for you, and it's coming across your desk or will be soon. Where does the committee sit in inputting on both of those situations, strategy plan for the BDIC as well as the food strategy programs? I would prefer to see that we have a chance to give input on that ahead of any finalization of those programs? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I seem to recall the last time BDIC appeared collectively with committee that they had said that we would have a draft to committee before it becomes finalized, so let me just repeat that now. With respect to food security, Madam Chair, I have only just recently received a rather large amount of information on food security and where it's at. Rather than me try to find it, why don't I turn to Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. For the two that the Minister spoke about, we've had an ADM working group on food security actively collecting some very important data on the existing GNWT programs, and I'm happy to say that there are a lot, over 28 programs and I think $20 million there. Obviously, we're doing a lot, but we're not visible in this space. With respect to the next steps, there will be that inventory that will be shared with committee, and also the departments are working together to identify a series of considerations for what the pathway should be. Where is the home in GNWT or outside of GNWT because collaboration is key here? I think we witnessed it with COVID, and luckily, there were not as many issues as could have happened. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the deputy minister's comments around the collaboration. When I hear the Minister commenting that it's ENR, it's health, you know. I'm assuming and hoping it's getting to a point where someone is going to take ownership of the program because I do think that we don't want to end up in a situation where some of our social programs, it's: who does it belong to? I see the Minister nodding along yes to that, so I'll just do that one as a comment.
Back to the arts program and arts funding, I've mentioned this around other programs in different departments, but another need I'm hearing about in this area is not a need for funding for projects, necessarily, but a need for funding for core funding, for executive director positions. When I spoke with people in the music industry, they were telling me that their equivalent music counterparts in the South are funded positions, and they are funded by their governments with at least some sort of siphon to help. Here, it's all volunteer, and as we all know in the North, as soon as that magical volunteer who runs that entire organization leaves, the entire things falls apart. There is no transfer of knowledge between who is left and who is there. People get disgruntled; they get frustrated. I think, if we truly want to invest in our arts going forward, an economy around our arts, then we need to ensure that we're funding the administrative part of that work. I think we would find that would not only increase employment in small communities, it would increase Indigenous employment, it would increase P2 employment, and it would allow our arts and music scene to flourish. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure if the Minister wants to comment.
Minister, did you have a comment?
That's a challenging one to solve, Madam Chair. No, and I don't mean to laugh to make light. I suspect most people in this room would not disagree. Right now, the ITI-focused programming does tend to be project-specific or event-specific, whether it's direct under, for instance, the Northern Arts Festival or through the SEED programming that does tend to supply funding for events. Again, ECE and ITI work quite closely in terms of the arts strategy, and we've had some discussions about we have a great strategy. What will we do to ensure that there is the funding to meet its goals? I don't have an answer right now, Madam Chair, and I'm not sure what commitment I can even give, other than to say that, again, we are going to continue to have conversations about that strategy going forward, and the point has been clearly heard, that this may well be an opportunity for economic development, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Any further questions?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sneaking in my last one before my last minute is up. This area, when I look at the overall amounts of numbers, the line numbers on page 211, there is a $4 million drop, which is the COVID relief that was given to us. Basically, this area has not increased in budget from pre-COVID times to now. Given that this is actually everything we need to do to more our economy forward and we don't have an emerging strongly plan at this point for us to look at, I am a little bit disappointed and surprised to not see any further or additional funding into these programs, and I would urge the Minister and her department to go back to FMB or try to get more money here, or however she has to do her magic, to invest more money into this area because this is going to actually help us achieve a lot of our mandate priorities, including the ones I was mentioning just in my last comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I think I may be putting my other hat on a little bit, but this isn't the recovery budget, per se. It's the "keep things afloat so that we can recover" budget. This is a good example of that, where a lot of the work that was and is happening with respect to advancing the mandate does happen. For ITI, to the extent that it's happening here, it continues to happen. The budgets haven't changed; they're still there and the work is moving forward. Again, with respect to COVID recovery, I will again defer and just say: more to come on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am going to start with the Great Northern Arts Festival. I am happy to see that this is still staying here, given that it's a COVID year and it's easy in COVID to try and take out stuff like this, but I think this is such an important festival. It is something that is celebrated throughout the North and very important. What I'm wondering is if there has ever been discussion of actually increasing this line item and taking advantage of the fact that a lot of the world is back on lockdown? I think there is a great opportunity here for us to support our digital media creatives within the Northwest Territories and to take the Great Northern Arts Festival to a more virtual platform so that you still do have people in the territory who are here, who are able to participat, but able to offer kind of a pay-per-use-type platform for people who are around the world, who can participate in workshops and such with our fabulous creatives we have all around the Northwest Territories. Is the Minister willing to actually increase this line item? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. At this point, this particular year, there wasn't a conversation around increasing for the arts festival. I don't disagree that there are opportunities to pivot online, and this funding is still sitting here and available for the support of the festival in whatever form it might be. There have been some important announcements recently from the federal government with respect to creative funding and arts funding specifically, COVID-related, COVID-inspired, perhaps. As we've often done, we want to make sure we're taking advantage of the federal dollars so that we can then fill in the gaps and support them and be complementary to what is available. For this year, again, as I say, this year, this is not changing, but as we go forward and we reopen, hopefully the future is bright. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I hear what the Minister is saying, but I do think it's a lost opportunity, especially when the rest of the world is sitting at home with chequebooks waiting to fill their days with something other than Netflix. I'm going to move on, though, to SEED funding. I am wondering how many people took part or took advantage of the bookkeeping support through SEED funding? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Hoping that she will have the most up-to-date numbers, I would suggest we go to Deputy Minister Strand, please.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have currently up-to-date numbers, and you will be happy to hear that this was a very well-uptaken program. We have funded 96 applicants for a total of $521,000. Thank you, Madam Chair.
