Caroline Wawzonek

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the change in actuals and the decrease there in the actuals was reflective of the fact that there was a sunset on the Slave Geologic Province exploration funding, but more generally speaking, there is a lot of leveraging that does go on with universities and a lot of contribution agreements that go through the Northwest Territories Geological Survey so that they can, indeed, leverage opportunities with universities. I am certainly happy to take away the idea of doing more. I also agree that this is an area that has, I think, tremendous growth potential in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it is still falling under the old legislation, which, again, I don't have in front of me. Madam Chair, I'm going to see if I can drive that back over to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. ECE and ITI are, indeed, working together on this. I do not believe there is specific funding allocated at this point. If I could propose to have it go to Deputy Minister Strand, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is obviously not money in the mains right now for the idea that the Member is suggesting. The film strategy, if it hasn't reached committee, is on its way across the hall. Once it has gone through that process, looking forward to an opportunity to receive feedback on it and to get it out to the public and to stakeholders. The subsidy program is one part of a program for supporting film producers. ECE has funding for arts. We have other funding for small- and medium-sized businesses. This isn't a one-stop shop for film. They have other ways to access our supports...

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We were really just waiting for the IGC process, the intergovernmental council process, to be concluded with the protocol there. With that done, I will commit to getting a full outline of our expected timeline on this to the Member. Thank you.

Madam Chair, no. It's not like that, Madam Chair. I'm going to suggest, though, that this go to Deputy Minister Strand.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the contributions section here, so this is detailing, I believe, money that is going direct to, for example, the maker spaces in contrast to the money that would be directed to a position that is there to support the work of the department, broadly speaking. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, that would be the $350,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a BDIC-specific item, and I know that that was one of the questions they looked at when they gathered together in January. I had emphasized to them the fact that people will need the answer to that in advance of the fiscal year. I would like to just confirm where they landed on that, and I will commit to getting back to the Member. I think I will have that answer by our next sitting dates. Thank you.