Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the government and how they can support a very important part of our northern business economy, that being our NWT artists. By way of fact, approximately 18 percent of the NWT population considers themselves an artist in one form or another. That’s almost one in five, which is an amazing population in our Territory. That could be your friends, your neighbours or whoever, but when you look around, one in five is a lot of people who consider themselves in a special area.
These artists are involved in carving, sewing, needlecraft, drawing, painting, creation of jewellery, visual arts, literary arts and publishing, performing arts, photography, film and video production. It’s a big list not to be considered as important.
Sadly, there are not very many of these people that we call artists that can make a full-time living through their skills and talents. Of all these people, they certainly make a serious and considerable contribution to the richness of the North and certainly our economy.
Last summer the Government of Saskatchewan enacted a law called the Arts Professions Act, which protects the intellectual property of artists and supports the development of properly prepared contracts. That law includes a definition of a professional artist and commits the Saskatchewan government to develop a cultural policy framework and action plan.
With Northerners and Southerners alike always raving about northern arts and culture, be it traditional or even modern art as I’ve made note of earlier, it is time that this government trade its lip service by providing a backstop by protecting and enshrining what artists mean in the Northwest Territories by recognizing them, supporting them, and protecting their works.
I believe with legislation similar to the Saskatchewan Arts Professions Act it is something that the GNWT in partnership with our northern artists should consider. If the artist community thinks it’s important enough and similarly needed in the NWT, a lot could be benefitted here. I believe this is something that the government should take seriously and work towards.
As I’ve often said, business may be known as the engine of our economy, however, arts and culture will definitely always be known as the soul of our economy. Let’s tap in to our one-in-five artists in our Territory who definitely make a considerable difference in our day-to-day lives.
