Thank you. Member.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Is this considered fully subscribed for this program? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just direct that back to Deputy Minister Strand again, please.
Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I think there are only a few that are still lingering with a few weeks left in this year, but yes, it's fully subscribed with the final processing under way. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. One of the things that we seem to hear a lot in our different committees is the need for administrative assistants or a kind of human resource capacity throughout communities and also in Yellowknife, and so I'm wondering if this portion of the SEED funding, this program of the SEED funding, will be continued into the new year and become part of a staple of SEED funding? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Sorry, Madam Chair. This portion, the business support portion? Madam Chair, that is probably a conversation to be had not in this forum with me by myself sitting here without officials. Yes, if it is a perennial problem for small businesses and certainly the fact that they didn't have their books done wasn't because of COVID, necessarily, it was probably a challenge that just built up over time, and then they wound up not being able to access funding. I think, by looking at those who have subscribed and hopefully getting some feedback as to why they wound up in that situation, we'll be better able to assess to what extent it was COVID-related and to what extent it's a long-standing and continuous problem and then make a choice going forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll come back to that question, then, down the road, once the Minister has had some more time to kind of establish answers to those questions. I'm going to move on to the nomination program. I'm wondering if there are any applications in the hopper, so to speak, right now?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Again, Madam Chair, for the most up-to-date, I'm going to suggest we go over to Deputy Minister Strand, please.
Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The answer is yes. I know that, during the COVID year, one part of the program is that there has to be a face-to-face interview, so we have those outstanding applications that I think will still need to be processed. I don't have the exact number, but I'm happy to come back with that number in more detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am wondering, given that a lot of the world is turning to virtual and that air travel is getting more expensive with fewer people travelling, if there has been conversation then around turning that into a virtual rather than an in-person interview. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a conversation worth having, so I will go and have the conversation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am wondering if any of the applications are for outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know there are some, but I do not know if we have those breakdowns. Let me see if Deputy Minister Strand does, and if not, we will make a commitment to get it.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Strand.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the majority have been for Yellowknife, but I can confirm that, yes, we have some applications for Hay River. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am going to switch over to commercial fisheries, please. I notice that there is an increase here in commercial fisheries over the last couple of years, and one of the things that I am wondering is: first of all, what does this increase -- oh, no, never mind; the increase was for before. It's a similar line item, then, to last year. I am wondering if the Minister can speak to any changes they are foreseeing in fisheries regulations for the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Fisheries regulations specifically, to the extent that there would be changes, they may well involve either ENR or the Department of Oceans and Fisheries from the federal government. The work that we are doing right now, from ITI's end, is to support, firstly, the Tlicho Fishers Cooperative, as they are getting ready to operate the fish plant that is being built as well as working with some of the other Indigenous governments or communities around the lake to build up their capacity, whether in terms of training or whether in terms of local processing, small-scale micro-processing plants, or collection stations. That is the work that is happening at ITI right now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am running out of time, so I am just going to quickly say that one of the things that I am hearing from people in the riding I serve is that there is help needed for smaller fishery businesses to export fish and that they are running into kind of road blocks with the federal government and that they need the added support from ITI to be able to ensure that they are actually able to make some money off that investment that they have.
However, I want to, before I run out of time here, quickly ask about the BDIC. Today, on the floor, we had a conversation about women in business, and one of the things that came out of that conversation was that 9 percent of BDIC loans go to women-owned small businesses. I am wondering if, based on that, the new gender equity unit will be working with BDIC to help look at the way that they do business. While I was writing my Member's statement, I did some research, and in the United States, there are people who actually do research into how venture capital ends up in the hands of women. One of the things that was discovered is that, while a lot of times, when men go through interviews for loans, they are asked to talk about their successes, and when women do it, they are asked to talk about their failures. I am wondering if Finance potentially -- and maybe if the Minister knows the Minister of Finance -- would work with the BDIC to put a gender equity lens on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, earlier, it was 9 percent went to businesses that have sole proprietorships as women, 55 percent go to small businesses that have at least a partial ownership of women, so it's not quite so dire, which is not to say that this is not an area for potential growth. I am quite sure I have seen some other statistics around the participation of women in small and micro-business, and there is a story to be told there. Yes, let me put whatever hat on I need to to say that I am quite confident from the interactions I have had with the executive director at BDIC and the board that they are keen to be very forward thinking and creative in how they approach micro-business in the business that they do. Yes, Madam Chair.
Thank you. All right. There are no further questions. Please turn to page -- oh, I just was trying to get past you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's hard to get past me. My first question is: my understanding is that the $3,800,000 we see for SEED this year is actually quite oversubscribed and that we have found some internal money within and managed to spend more than is in the budget, for which I am very happy. I think SEED is one of our best programs and probably is some of the best return on investment we get for creating business in the NWT. Can I get an updated figure of how much we have disbursed in SEED funding over this last fiscal year? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I think the most up-to-date would be hopefully with Deputy Minister Strand.
Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the updated numbers, it's broken into a few. For example, we have the bookkeeping; we have the pivot; we had an increased core SEED budget. I think the number is sitting at about $4.8 million that has gone into SEED as a whole, so it's about an increase of $984,000 that has been reallocated from within. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I recognize it's a pandemic year, and we rushed to find some money. It's good we spent an extra million on SEED. However, I note even in the last actuals SEED was oversubscribed. It's one of those programs that is consistently oversubscribed, which is a good thing. I also expect that the need for economic recovery is not going to disappear in the next fiscal year. Is the department expecting that we will find more SEED money, and if so, can we just simply make this budget a little more accurate and increase it? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do not necessarily subscribe to the view that oversubscription equals good value for money. I do agree generally, though, that the SEED funding does seem to be one that does support small business, small/medium businesses, and community events and projects, so I would like to just simply say that this is clearly a good program. The direction that we are going right now in the government is that we are going to figure out which are the good programs that are delivering on what they say that they are delivering, in this case assistance to businesses and individuals. When we have that case, we can bring it back and hopefully be in a position to make an argument for why it should have an increase in funding. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I also have heard good things from constituents for the bookkeeping money that went out. I have also heard that it's much easier for them to access SEED than a lot of the CanNor and federal funding that went out, which is part of the reason we gave them money to do their books, to get them in line with the sometimes very onerous requirements of getting money out of the federal government. Does SEED have any sort of tracking there of how much we use SEED money to then leverage federal money? I think there are a couple of metrics you could use, but my understanding is a lot of businesses go to SEED to help with business plans and development applications and then go actually get more money out of the federal government, which is all great. I am just wondering if we have any of those numbers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank, Madam Chair. That is not inaccurate, that it is certainly a conduit to more money, and we do have metrics. I don't know if we have them with us. I know it's reported on annually, Madam Chair, and if that is agreeable, I would certainly just commit to making sure that that's available to the Member.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. That is fine. I am just trying to get some good numbers on the public record for SEED. Can I get an update on where we are at with market disruption being applied to SEED funding? I have heard a couple of different answers over the year of it not being applied just to the COVID relief. I get that there are a number of streams and that they have been moving around, understandably, to adapt, but how are we applying market disruption to SEED funding going forward? Thank you, Madam Chair.
