Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member's love for this program; I share it. I think it's definitely ITI's cornerstone -- well, one of their major cornerstone offerings to residents of the Northwest Territories. So the major changes there that we're seeing from one year to the next is the previous year had $1 million in CanNor funding for operational support to businesses affected by the wildfire evacuation, and so that was dollars given to the GNWT that directly went to businesses from there for wildfire relief for businesses that were evacuated. And then in addition to that, Regular Members in the previous Assembly also negotiated SEED funding specific for arts to the tune of $375,000, and that was negotiated as part of budget negotiations for one year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
I'm surprised she said that because we got to sustain our economy, and economic development is important for the NWT. So that's why -- and especially in small communities with high unemployment rate, so that's why I'm asking, you know, especially within this area, because it does affect us too. We have constituents that benefit from these programs. So it's more of a comment. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, they were natural sunsets of the program. So those dollars weren't put in on an ongoing recurring basis. One of them was monies that were afforded to us through CanNor specifically for wildfire relief, and then the other one was a one-year arrangement that was negotiated as part of budget negotiations in a previous government. Thank you.
Thank you. There's no further questions? Thank you. I'm going to continue on now to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question's around the Great Northern Arts Festival. I know the Minister knows how important this festival is to the community of Inuvik and to the Northwest Territories. I note that I believe the answer is that the funding was deferred, but I just wanted to get -- sorry, moved to another department. I just wanted to get that on record, Mr. Chair, that the $25,000 for the Great Northern Arts Festival is still available. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I share the Member's love of the Great Northern Arts Festival and would like to see it continue. It is still funded within ITI, but the funding comes out of the SEED funding.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. There's no further questions? I want to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm looking at all these different programs within this activity and listening to the Minister making compliments of diversification and supports. It's all good. And I look forward to -- and my presentation's more of a comment, Mr. Chair.
The Minister had mentioned that we had wildfire relief. Now we got to design low water relief. So I look forward to, as for our statement -- or my statement here to the Minister, how to design from this package of programs to design a low water relief for the Sahtu businesses? I'm constantly getting texts already on complimenting what was said because I share the Minister's support on all government approach to the clients back in the Sahtu. So I'm glad to hear that, and I'm also glad to see the various supports of these various programs that go to that problem, and I look forward to negotiating a relief package designed for these clients back home there with the Minister and this department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll take that as more of a comment, and I'll continue on. On page 238, are there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've been talking about building our economy in our committees and their deliberations. It's important that we help build our economy within each community, within each region, as a territory as a whole, but when you look at these SEED programs, the advance -- I mean, the community futures, all these programs have had a decrease in these areas where it's giving -- where it states community. It's very disturbing to see these cuts in these areas where it supports community initiatives. Can you give me some clarity on that, please. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, some of these are reductions due to duplications in programs within the department, and some of them are sunsets of programming as well. Some of them are also vacant positions within the department that have -- and some of them are -- there is also some fiscal sustainability in there as well. But the -- sorry, the duplications that you're finding in the department, what we are doing is trying to focus a lot of the funding through SEED and really looking at with what is it that communities are looking for, what is it that they want to do, and then how can we simply get funding to community members and work with communities in order to see their economic development goals go through rather than trying to get people to fit into different funding pots across the board. So unless, of course, it is a federal funding pot in which case we are required to use those different programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll go back to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
I'm just looking at what my colleague from Inuvik Boot Lake just stated was the Great Northern Arts Festival. We have a festival that's affiliated with the community of Fort McPherson, the Midway Lake community -- I mean, the Midway Lake Music Festival. Has this organization ever made a proposal to your department for funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, anybody who would like to be able to kind of travel that same road and put in an application to have their festival funded within the program would need to put in an application under the community economic development stream. So I would encourage anybody to go through and do that for sure. And if they want support in order to do that, they can go to their regional director -- or sorry, regional office, and our regions will definitely work with communities across the board in order to see what kind of funding can be sourced. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Okay. No, my question was I'm looking for funding for Midway Lake. Has the organization ever approached your department or regional department for funding in the past? I'm just wondering if that's something that this organization has ever pursued. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have that level of detail with me here today as far as who may have applied for it, but I'd be happy to pull that information for the Member and get back to him, for sure.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One last question, what's the criteria for some organization, like, that's applying for -- may want to apply for funding; what's the criteria? Do they have to be affiliated to a society of some sort? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, there's multiple streams. There's streams that are for people who are sole proprietors that own their own business. There's streams for organizations. There's streams -- a multitude of different streams. There's streams for Indigenous governments. And so my suggestion would absolutely be for people to reach out to their regional office if they have a project that they would like to see go forward, an event, or especially if somebody has an economic development idea they'd love the support of seeing through.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member of Mackenzie Delta.
When somebody applies for funding from your department in this area, do they have to provide a financial report? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it would depend on what exactly they were asking for, the amount they're asking for, and what stream of the program they're entering into. So, for example, somebody who's a sole proprietor that would like to be able to access SEED dollars in order to kind of propel their business and see it evolve would be expected to provide quotes for what it is that they're looking for and also, you know, an indication of their own equity that they want to put into the project as well. So I would say it really depends on what it is that they are looking to do. But there are streams that speak to multiple organizations and individuals across the territory. The goal here is to try and help people evolve their business ideas and support them to see economic development and also arts across the territory evolve and flourish.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just give you an example, the Great Northern Arts Festival, use them as an example, if they wanted to put in a proposal for a grant to -- for this festival here, would they have to provide a financial report after their festival is completed?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for all of our contribution agreements within the Department of ITI, we always have a reporting mechanism, so yes.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
I'm fine. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chairperson. I was looking at the agriculture -- Canadian Agriculture Partnership. You had $1,051,000 in 2022-2023, and then you had nothing after that. Then it looks like you went into the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership. Okay, so do we have a huge agriculture sector in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can honestly say that when I travelled to the South Slave not that long ago, agriculture was the topic that came up the most often when we were down there. So just for a summary of allocations to regions, if the Member is interested, from the SCAP allocations for 2023-2024, we had $230,000 to the Beau-Del; $120,000 to the Sahtu; $200,000 to the Deh Cho, $364,000 to the South Slave; $330,000 to the North Slave; and $340,000 to the headquarters region here for a total of 1.584 -- well, $1.5 million, just over. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Deh Cho.
That's pretty -- it's growing. It's a grower sector that is becoming successful. So, yeah, that's what I wanted to know. How many people are -- or how many programs in -- so I'm trying to figure out what -- how many programs per region are there? Is it people are applying at every community, or is it certain communities? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have a list that is community specific. But just to give an idea of some of the things that the funds are going toward, there are -- there's everything from research project to infrastructure investment, local markets, community-based growing initiatives, community garden wages, business plans, community planning processes, educational initiatives, school gardens, and even training events. So it's a real broad range of where people are investing in this market and this area. There's a ton of potential across the territory, especially in the Deh Cho region. And so there's real great opportunity. Even here based in Yellowknife, there is the agrifoods association who is also doing a lot of outreach and a lot of support to people from different regions to see how they can come together and really support one another, and this past year had their first conference here in town which was very well attended. This was even people from Europe that came over and presented that are growing another circumpolar regions. You know, even over in Alaska people came over here to talk about how they're doing it and what they're doing and even people from the Yukon. So there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of interest in food sustainability here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
That's good. I'm happy to hear that. And that's a good news story from ITI supporting people and supporting the communities. So continue to do that because we're going to need a lot of that. So thank you so much. And that's it for questions.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my first question is about Prosper NWT. And so it looks like the budget has been reduced by about 24 percent between last year's budget and this year's budget. Can the Minister explain what's happening there or the rationale behind that? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
