Committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the House for the record?

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. To my left I have the deputy minister of ECE, Gabriela Eggenhofer; to my immediate right is Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of corporate services within ECE; and Dana Heide, associate deputy minister with ECE.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we are on page 65, education and culture, operations expenditure summary, $244.200 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome to the department again. I have two areas of questioning regarding this activity summary. First is the culture and heritage main estimates of the $7.1 million. I noticed we did approve, a few pages back, the care and storage of Government of Nunavut museum and archive collection for a little over $1 million. Can I get an idea of what the cost is for the Prince of Wales Museum? Is it the $7.1 million and are we minus the revenues we are getting from Nunavut? So, is it costing us $6 million or is there another type of math that I should be looking at? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Museum had an agreement with Nunavut to store their archives. There has been a decrease in funding. I will get my deputy to elaborate more in detail. There are some agreements in place as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you. I do appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that this is not a long-term solution and I am pleased knowing that. I’m also pleased knowing that the Regular Members did play a key role years ago and making aware that there are archives being stored and there was no return. So we were appreciative of the fact that the government negotiates its restitution or at least some compensation for doing those activities.

That being said, the question of the math, what is the cost of operations of the NWT archives operation at the Prince of Wales? Again, we are seeing $7.1 million and we have revenue from the Nunavut government of over $1 million. Is this offsetting each other or is it costing us $7 million at the end of the day to operate that museum? Thank you.

Mr. Lovely.

Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess in essence, $7.1 million is what it’s costing us and we have an offset of a little over $1 million. So it’s costing the taxpayer about $6 million. If and when the Nunavut archives are removed from this facility, do we have enough artifacts that are also in storage to meet the needs or at least to put into exhibit or at least curator exhibits? Maybe just a brief description of how many of our archives, NWT archives, are also put to the side as a result, or is this just involving storage behind the scenes and not really being showcased as exhibits?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Eggenhofer.

Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it’s safe to say that at a point in time in the future that the museum itself will have a lot more space to deal with more of its own artifacts. Would there be the probability that we could also, with the new space, if and when that indeed comes to fruition, this new space can be used for artwork, local artists showcasing some of our unique culture that may not have had the opportunity to have that type of exposure? Is there a possibility of the department opening up the doors to more local artists to have an opportunity to show their wares?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. We are currently doing that already with some of the local artists from across the Northwest Territories. We want to showcase each of the regions as much as we possibly can in the hallway of the museum, and even go further. If we have more additional spaces then we’ll take advantage of that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Dolynny.

That’s good to hear. I think we have a lot of talent here in the Northwest Territories and the space is going to be always at a premium within our four walls, and I’m very appreciative of the fact we’re going to open some doors to some of our incredibly talented artists.

I’d like to continue on with my questions on this activity but changing gears ever so slightly. This category contains compliance with the NWT Child Daycare Act as well as the child daycare standards or regulations. As the department will remember, this committee felt very passionately about wanting to put more money into daycare facilities last year. So much so that we wanted to put an extra $500,000 to augment existing daycare facilities. This committee felt that there was a need in the Northwest Territories. Of course, at that point in time it didn’t come to fruition through the process. That being said, I still want to highlight the fact that there is still a dire need in our communities to have those types of daycare supports. Many of us have talked to many of the key stakeholders in the communities around their family resource centres. These would be perfect vehicles. We already have a lot of infrastructure in place that is not being used 100 percent.

To the question of augmenting daycare facilities, what are the plans for this department to enhance that service and, if so, can it share some of those highlights for this upcoming budget year?