Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The programs we have in place today have been refined over the last couple of years. We have our heritage centre. We provide some support to some -- the museum in Fort Smith, for example, and an organization in Norman Wells. Plus, we provide some radio support to operate community radio stations. We have the NWT Arts Council, which hands out small amounts of money to arts people.
What I see as a challenge here, Mr. Chairman, is that we need to work on a program to identify how we can move forward with culture, arts and heritage. We have been working with the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, as well as Heritage Canada, to develop an arts policy so that we can say how to move forward now, how can we access further funding in this whole area.
I think it is an area that I am starting to be able to spend some time on and concentrate on. It is extremely important to us as a territory. The arts area is one of the critical areas that I feel I can start on, and I think we already have a steering committee in place on that, Mr. Chairman.
The three departments, the federal and the two territorial departments, are working together to develop that arts policy so that we can bring it back to Cabinet and then to pursue possible federal funding in this area to see how we can, from the territorial government, pursue this as well.
When I say the arts area, that is the visual arts, the performing arts, film and video, sound recording, publishing, new media and so forth. That leaves several other areas, Mr. Chairman. It also leaves the area of heritage. What are we doing about heritage areas? I think we need to spend time and effort to work on all these areas. First the arts, and simultaneously, if we had the time and ability, to work on heritage and culture.
On the culture side, of course, language is an important area. We have been working on that for the past couple of years putting more money into it. This budget contains the possibility of gaining additional money for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.