Caroline Wawzonek

Madam Speaker, this time next week the residents of Fort Simpson will be rolling out the red carpet for the fourth annual Liidlii Kue Film Festival. The festival is presented each year by the Liidlii Kue First Nation with funding and support from the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Northwest Territories Film Commission. It has become a yearly opportunity in the Deh Cho to showcase and celebrate the artistry and talent of local and territorial producers. Like the Yellowknife International Film Festival, it can be credited with encouraging creativity and collaboration and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, thank you, I'm happy to have the question. So this wasn't intended to be a blanket increase to every funding pot, every contribution agreement, every grant agreement, every program dollar that goes out the door to the nonprofit sectors across the Northwest Territories. This was to address the fact that for up to now, nonprofits were out offering services and conducting business really that, without their taking that on, the Government of the Northwest Territories would have to take it inside. So the easier examples often are around the health and social services side...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's correct. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Chair, this is certainly an area that I know can be very popular in terms of having that SEED support. What we did during COVID was because there was other areas that weren't being fully utilized in light of the restrictions and changes during the pandemic, there was some ability to move money over to the SEED program to provide supports at times when small businesses were very much struggling. As far as what the future of the program is, we are you know, this is an area where there hasn't been a significant indepth review done in some time. It is still a...

Mr. Chair, I'm going to suggest this go to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's not going to the towards the Intergovernmental Council process or to the Intergovernmental Council itself. That has a separate funding arrangement. It is for nonIGC members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the CAP, or the Canadian Agricultural Partnership agreement, is a bilateral agreement with the federal government. It does get renegotiated time to time. And there has been a new framework that was negotiated with the provinces and territories and the federal government. So we are expecting, as a result of that, a 25 percent increase to the overall funding envelope.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is yet another chance for ECC and ITI to work together. Minister Thompson and I have spoken about the Aurora Wood Pellets project many times. The deputy minister will likely have the latest on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am familiar with at least one project in particular where I know there was definitely a story of an individual who I think in fact did go ahead and move away. But, Mr. Chair, simple answer, absolutely happy to work with Lands. I know the department officials are already working with Lands and there was, not that long ago, that myself and Minister Thompson often had regular checkins and meetings because we have overlaps such as this one. So what I can do on my end is confirm that we'll add that to a future meeting that we have between the two departments with Ministers...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me get back to the Member on that. The challenge I would see on that is there's going to be MARS funding. There's going to be the mineral resource the sort of specific line item here, and I want to make sure that we don't lose anything over the course of a few fiscal years. It's embedded work that this is what this is sort of where this is the meat of what a lot of public servants over at ITI do right now, but we'll try our best to pull the specifics of it. I'm confident I won't have that number and, yes, the mining recorder’s office as well. So it's...