Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these documents are largely approaches and visions, and I am apprehensive to put timelines around them because they are not going to be solely GNWT-driven documents. They're going to be documents that really bring together the voices of Northerners right across our territory. We have heard a lot of really good things across the territory, a lot of momentum in this field lately, especially in regards to Indigenomics and so this is a space for us to come together through Council of Leaders. This is a space for us to come together with voices, for example, through the Indigenous Leaders Economic Forum and really bring all of these visions together in one place. I think we're at a point in the history of the NWT where we really need to be hustling together in the same direction, and so there's a huge amount of opportunity that sits in front of us and these documents are a place for us to bring all of our voices together. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I did write in my notes "with partners" on both of these. So kind of anticipated that answer. And recognizing, of course, that the Minister doesn't want to speak for the partners of the GNWT too-too much on this one, I am still curious if the department has sort of handle on what kind of outputs or outcomes they're looking for from these documents. I'm assuming they'll be cornerstone documents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's difficult to put timelines and to put cornerstone outputs on these without working together with our partners. I think that part of these documents being so successful is that they have to include everybody's voices, and everybody has to be able to see themselves in it. So to start with, with outputs without actually defining where we're going to go on this path together and what our common goals are, I think would be unfair. And so I hear, I think, the Member's desire to see something sooner than later and to really be able to drive momentum and inspiration, hope for the territory from getting these documents out, and I share the Member's intent in that, and I think a lot of residents do, and so this is definitely a focus of mine but something that I definitely want to do in the true spirit of collaboration and partnership. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I guess my last question is more of a comment. I hope that the Minister feels inspired to share any scoping or preliminary work as things go ahead and as partners come to an agreement. So I think that's more of a comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't repeat the questions on the economic planning. I pretty much just agree with what the Member for Great Slave just asked about and her comments on it. But moving on under this department, the business plan, again, page 154, the support for arts. So I actually support the mandate commitment, I do appreciate seeing continued support NWT Arts and arts organizations. I won't read out the whole thing. But noting that increased number of funded artists and arts organizations funding, just to that point. I've spoken about this a couple times over budget deliberations but just to note that, you know, just increasing the number of individuals receiving funding does not necessarily speak to kind of the health of the industry and can sometimes not necessarily work towards building the health of the industry as much as core funding for organizations. So I just wanted to hear -- I just kind of -- I guess I mostly just want to get that comment on the table and would suggest that if we could get targets identified that speak more to kind of growth in the industry overall and taking action which will include -- which will lead to that as opposed to simply just, you know, targeting that we're just going to fund more people. If the Minister could just kind of comment on that a little bit.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think that this is an exciting time because we are in the process of combining all of our arts funding within ITI, and I think what -- and my vision of doing this is being able to bring all of these funding opportunities together to a one-stop shop. And it also allows us to have conversation -- like, more fulsome conversations about what it is that artists need. And I think I've said in this House before that having sat through some of the art strategy engagement in 2019, I heard a lot of the same things that I heard as a 5-year-old sitting through art strategy type engagements with my mother back in the day with a lot of the same players and advocates sitting around the table and still asking for some of the same things, and so I think this is an opportunity to bring those voices together, bring the funding together, and be able to look at opportunities to stack that funding together, and within the arts council funding as well comes a position in order to look at just that. How do we take this funding and actually extrapolate it and grow it so that we are increasing the opportunities for artists within the territory? Because I don't think there's a single person in this room that would disagree on the absolute value of art across our territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next thing I wanted to chat about is just the contributions part, advancing the knowledge economy. So they've got a hundred thousand set for that this year. I note that they've cut it a little bit from the past. And can the Minister kind of describe what the department -- the department's understanding of what advancing knowledge economy means and particularly how it relates to, you know -- yeah, just that comment alone. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, you know, I think that I spent a tremendous amount of time in the last term actually looking up knowledge economy and trying to figure out what people actually meant. So I hear the Member in that kind of the piece in there about really it means something slightly different to everybody else, but my understanding of it is essentially a system where production of goods and services is based on research and innovation and development of product in our territory. And I think the really neat thing about the Northwest Territories is you're able to really even hone in on bridging our western and traditional sciences in that as well. So I think it's a pretty neat one here. But for more detail on our innovation action plan and our knowledge economy pieces, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister.
I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In follow-up to the Minister's comments, yes, the knowledge economy has, you know, evolved into the innovation action plan, and we are still very actively working on this. I'm happy to report that there's been a new development called the NWT Innovation Collective, which was launched in January of 2024 in partnership with Wilfred Laurier University, and it brings together government, academia, and industry, and we believe this will be a really important partnership to move a lot of the actions forward. Some of the areas that, you know, we think are going to be key here are creating microclusters, such as in the agriculture sector and potentially also the manufacturing sector. So those are our areas that we're looking at. And, for example, there is microcluster funding from ISET in the federal government being administered through some NGOs that could be beneficial for those two areas. So that work will advance. It's still in its infancy, but that is what we're looking towards having really be leading this work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the department for that answer. I actually -- I really appreciate that one, and I'm quite excited to hear what's happening in that regard.
You know, last but not least, this one's just a comment for the record, but kind of build upon what my colleague was talking about with the economic vision and the, you know, increased investment and diversification that we were talking about, something that the Member from Yellowknife North has spoken about a fair bit, and I completely agree with, is just that when we're talking about economic diversification, I think that we need to be focusing on strategic things that we can be doing, things that are actually going to advance diversification in the territory and we have evidence to support those as opposed to simply thinking of diversification as something where we just invest in everything and we try to grow everything that's happening. So I'm hoping that the vision that we develop is going to help us do that. I would just kind of add to the Member for Great Slave's encouragement to the department, I think this is something that I'd like to see us get in place soon. Let's say before we're more than halfway through the term of this Assembly, I'd like to see us really prioritize this, get it done quickly so that can start helping us kind of strategically target our actions. You know, the fact that we don't have the plan in place now does concern me, and so I think we need to be kind of thinking about -- yeah, I'd just like to see us get it done quickly as opposed to this be something that's finished, you know, say, by the end of the term because we've got big challenges we're facing, and we need to be targeted in how we're addressing them. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I took that as a comment but very happy to respond to it.
We often hear about the need to diversify our economy in the Northwest Territories, and we certainly do already have a very diverse economy, and when we look at, you know, where to go tomorrow and what opportunities sit before us, I agree with the Member that we have a tremendous amount of areas in the North that have the ability to grow and the ability to flourish and that we need to take stock of what our assets are and where we're going to get the biggest return on our investment as we go forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Before I go to the next Member here, I just want to just -- I just want to ask Members to be mindful that we have the Minister here and Members here speaking, if there's Members that want to speak to their colleagues, they could just maybe step outside briefly and then come back in.
So next on my list here I got the Member from Frame Lake.
I think you mean a different lake, Mr. Chair.
Range Lake.
Got to change these riding names, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to talk about the film industry rebate program. This is a really good program, and I support it fully, and I think the film strategy has come a very long way and it always has a lot of success. But it's succeeding in a very -- like, it's scratching the surface of our potential. And I think the key is this rebate program and at this point, I think it's the -- the funding is useful for those kind of small northern driven films which deserve to be supported, but we're never going to see production companies choose to base their productions here for the money alone when it's funded to this degree. Is there -- and what I mean by that is, you know, our natural beauty and the uniqueness of the setting brings people here. They choose the Northwest Territories because it's spectacular, but they don't come here because of the film credit. So is there a way we can take our natural advantage of being a spectacular destination for filming and bump this rebate up so we can start to see more productions come here and all the benefits that come from that, all the economic spinoffs and multiply our job creation, the industries that grow up around it as well. I know firsthand that this could be incredibly transformative, especially for small communities. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member bringing this up, the multipliers within the film industry in the Northwest Territories are absolutely incredible, and so being able to capitalize on that is definitely worth our investment for sure. For that reason, in this budget from Main Estimate 2023-2024 and Main Estimate 2024-2025, you do see an increase in the film rebate program of $400,000, and there is future increases to come as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And my apologies if I'm not up to date with the current strategy, but what is the plan -- like, what's the ceiling for the rebate? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just give me a moment here on these contributions for film rebate program. Here we are.
So in the 2024-2025, our contributions there are $500,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Apologies, Mr. Chair. I meant where is it going? Like the the Minister said, it's expected to go beyond 500K, so I'm just wondering what the thinking is, like how high is this going; is it going to be a million dollar fund at some point or multimillion dollar, or are we going to keep it kind of -- is it an incremental increase to, like, 600K? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in 2024-2025, the main estimates are $500,000 investment for the contributions for the film rebate program. And in the following year for 2025-2026, the investment would go up another $500,000 to $1 million investment. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you. Next on my list here I got the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here it says, okay, advanced knowledge economy. You know, 2022-2023, well, that program went down, the money went down in in the community feature, community initiative and support for entrepreneur and economic development.
We all know that we need to grow our economy, and with GNWT fiscal restraint and mine closing, we really do need the economy. So I just want to know what is the government doing to help our -- especially in the small communities, because we lack a lot of resources and our unemployment rate is really high and many of these programs are supporting small communities and some of the small communities residents use these funds, you know, with their business venture. So I just wanted to know if -- what kind of a relationship does the Minister have with local organizations or Indigenous government for entrepreneur and economic development in these small communities?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in regards to the question specifically about community transfer initiatives that the Member did ask about, I just wanted to first respond to that question. So that question there is an underspend of the vacant economic development officer positions, and so -- and those positions that have traditionally been vacant are in Fort Liard, the Sahtu, and in Tuktoyaktuk. And so however the community transfer initiatives funding does provide about 13 and a half positions through Indigenous governments, especially in our small communities, and those are economic development funding positions that play a role of helping people set up businesses and enter into passive entrepreneurship.
In addition, Mr. Chair, there's also, for example, programs like SEED which is a program that people who are wanting to jump into entrepreneurship can take advantage of. And there are also programs that are supportive, with my other ECE hat on as well. If somebody wants to start a business, there is programming called the self-employment fund, which I think, unfortunately, not a ton of people know about, but also supports people as they're starting their own businesses.
Across the territory, Mr. Chair, ITI does contribute over $10 million across programs like community futures, community transfer initiatives, SEED funding, through their sustainable Canadian agriculture program and also the northern food development program. So there's a tremendous amount of funding and programming that does go into the Northwest Territories.
And what I would say to MLAs and to anybody who does want to start a business is please either reach out to your MLA or to your regional staff with ITI, because there are people who want to be able to create these pathways and help people figure out where they fit within these funding programs. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Yes, this sustainable community agriculture partnership, I know at one time that's -- that was, I think -- well, with the high cost of living, we really do need more of this kind of programs and I know -- so this was a bilateral agreement between federal and GNWT, so I'm just wondering if the Minister -- or are they going to try and find a program similar to this so to offset our high cost of living in the North? I know Hay River had -- they were training some of our young people before, you know, with lots of -- with agriculture. So I just wanted to know if there's going to be more of this kind of program in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the line item that's towards the top of the page, the Canadian Agriculture Partnership, the GNWT was able to renegotiate that deal and it resulted in actually an increase which is now found at the very bottom of the page under the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership. And that agreement is to the tune of $7.6 million over the lifetime of the agreement, and you can see here that it has gone up from the -- what was allotted under the Canadian Agriculture Partnership. So for 2024-2025, it's sitting just over $1.5 million. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. For 2022-2023, there was nothing. So I missed that one. So that's okay. There was another one too. I had another question here. No, it is okay, that's it for this page. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
Okay. Support for entrepreneur and economic development here. For 2023-2024, it was $5,241,000. I know that's probably related to the fire and the floods, and this year for 2024-2025, you estimate 3.4. Why? Because we're -- you know, the report is that this year it's going to be dry and hot summer. I mean, we haven't seen it yet still but, you know -- and it's just that why the budget cut because I know this benefit a lot of other local businesses. I know a lot of businesses, they helped last year with this, so I just wanted to know why there's, you know, a major cut in that area.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
