Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Time and time again, the Members at this side of the House have raised the issue of knowledge economy and our government's investment in it. I'd like to ask the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment exactly what his department is doing on this file? It doesn't seem like much, but perhaps he can set the record straight and allow us to understand how ITI is advancing the knowledge economy in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, this question came up yesterday when we were in front of committee. The deputy answered it, but there's a fulsome answer. This was a renewed mandate commitment to this Assembly. The knowledge economy is something new to the Legislative Assembly. There's a brand new FPT table surrounding this with the federal government. The federal government has taken a new approach to this on innovation. They've announced their clusters across the country, what they've committed to doing. We've had engagement with them on how we can try to include ourselves in some of these clusters, but as a territorial government, the knowledge economy is something new that we're trying to approach.
I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of what knowledge economy means. We need to be able to pull data together, information that is actually a commodity, at the end of the day, that is useful, that you can tangibly, possibly sell to somebody. Our department has taken this, and we've looked at a few initiatives that we want to use around a knowledge economy. One is agriculture; one is a Northwest Territories geological survey; and the other one is the REDI initiative that we implemented last year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I won't remind the Minister of his deputy's remarks yesterday, but again, we're hearing that not much is going on, and it's not that new. That table, perhaps the current incarnation of that table is new, but the federal budget commitment has been there for a while, and so has the money. The Minister spoke about clusters. What is the path forward for the NWT? Should we be looking to forming partnerships with the other northern territories to build up an innovation cluster for ourselves, or should we be looking to partner with Alberta? What's the path forward on knowledge clusters?
We have a world-class facility in Inuvik, which is one option. There are all types of knowledge economy that we can pull together. It could be something based around climate change, research, adaptation, these sorts of things, but I think, as a government as a whole, this has ended up in ITI's lap. We need to take a whole government approach and have possibly even a working group to consider how we want to approach this, because it's a very complicated deal. Do we want to target the cluster situation? Do we want to look at pulling everything within the Northwest Territories together to do it, or do we bring in the three territories across the North to have an approach to this? These are the discussions that we have to have, and maybe the Member has some thoughts on that, that he can provide me with, some thoughts on what he thinks we should do.
Mr. Speaker, I'll ask the questions here, if the Minister doesn't mind. The other area here is innovation, of course. How is ITI rewarding innovators in our economy? What programs and support do they have in place to reward private sector actors who are innovating their own businesses, including the mines? How are we rewarding innovation at all levels of our economy?
I don't think the knowledge economy is about rewarding people. The knowledge economy is about bringing new methodologies to the table, new ideas, how to do business better, how to make things better for climate change adaptation. How do we increase the fibre connectivity of the North to Southerners, satellite facilities, these sorts of things. I don't think there's a reward base. Private business rewards itself with innovation that makes it more cost effective. Innovation brings more investment dollars from outside the country. That's the type of rewards that private businesses bring. It's not the government's job to reward people for innovation.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Mr. Speaker, if we want innovators to come and invest in the Northwest Territories, we should be offering incentives for innovation such as a tax credit that would allow a research and development tax credit, a subsidy, a program that rewards that level of investment when they invest back in their business to do those things. It is our government's job to support that, and there is federal money available to do it, so will the Minister commit to developing an innovation strategy that will address some of these key points that I've raised today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Incentives is one thing; tax breaks is another thing. Those aren't rewards. Those are things that are put in place to bring industry to the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to look at that. I will talk to my department and our officials to see what our plans are moving forward with the knowledge economy. I would probably suggest to the Member that I will have the deputy talking to the deputies' working group and see how we're going to pull things together, and I will update the Member when I get this information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
