Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and are in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier today.
On March 23rd I attended a meeting between
industry and government on the NWT film industry,
and at that time the GNWT, or the department committed to a number of items with respect to the film industry. One of them was to encourage greater cooperation between ITI and ECE, one was to dedicate some seed funding for film and media arts, one was to invest in a website, one was to invest in the formation of an association for the industry, and one was to establish a mandate for the NWT Film Commission. I’m happy to say that most of this has been done by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and I’m very happy with the progress.
I do have a couple of questions. I know that a website has been developed. I have had an opportunity to go on line and see it. It’s really quite good and it is early days. My question is, at the beginning stage of this website development, I’ve gone in to look at it and in one section it’s called Suppliers Guide and it basically outlines all the different organizations that are available to help the filming industry. Animal handlers, carpenters, caretakers, directors, equipment rental, these types of things. I’ve gone through and opened each one of them up to see what’s on there. Right now, unfortunately, it appears that all of the people identified within these lists are from Yellowknife, which is great, but a film industry for the Northwest Territories is supposed to be NWT-wide. I’m curious; is the department committed to going out to the other communities and regions of the Northwest Territories to gain some professionals that are providing these types of services and get them included in this territorial website?