Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the National Indigenous Cultural Expo happening in Edmonton on September 28th to 30th this year. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to see Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories well-represented at the National Indigenous Cultural Expo and prominent on a Canada-wide stage. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering what our Department of Education, Culture and Employment will plan to do to ensure that this happens? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The event that the Member was mentioning in his statement was a gathering that took place in 2017. At that time, the department did sponsor the Inuvialuit drummers and dancers to attend the event. We do support artists and northern performers as well as cultural delegates through funding programs. As you know, we do have a pot of funding and that, if anyone wants to look at attending the event, they get their applications into the department sooner than later before the end of the fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response from the Minister. My second question is: what level of financial or other types of support does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment expect to pledge to this event?
Every year the department allocates about $100,000 for the support of northern performers and cultural delegates funding. As I mentioned earlier, I encourage anyone who wants to attend the event or any other events to submit a formal application to the department.
That's good information for organizations to know. My final question, and also just a comment: I think that the Indigenous Cultural Expo for Northwest Territories might be a good way to raise awareness of our cultures, languages, traditions, and arts. It also has a great potential to support our growing tourism sector. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister look into the idea and report his findings back to the Assembly of some events like this in the Northwest Territories?
Currently, the department supports a wide variety of events and programs that focus on our Indigenous cultures, languages, traditions, arts. To that, I can think right off the top of my head are the Great Northern Arts Festival, also the Metis Cultural Days that are in Hay River. Right across the parking lot here at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, we do that through exhibits and events throughout the year. We have over about 60,000 visits to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre on a yearly basis. We also continue to support heritage fairs in the schools, among many other things, but any other suggestions or supports that we can do, we're gladly willing to look at them.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
