Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When I spoke about it last week, I did indicate that I had met with the chair of the NCS that looks after CKLB. It was made clear that obviously both he and I want CKLB back online because it is the voice of the North.
My department has been contributing, for a number of years now, our portion of $202,000. We’ll continue to do that. That’s our commitment. Obviously, through the federal government there is approximately $464,000 that goes to the CKLB. There have been some challenges, obviously, on the reporting mechanism.
I did meet with Shelly Glover, as I indicated last week. This is very important that we need to resolve this issue, once and for all, how to best deal with the next step. The next step, I’m hoping that the federal Minister will be receptive to us taking the funding over from the federal government so we can work directly with NCS and CKLB. That’s where it’s at right now.
As the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we will continue to deliver our
contribution. I believe the chair has stated that they’re in the process of discussing amongst the board to see if we could offer some sort of CKLB broadcasting to some degree. Probably not full- fledged at this point, but those are discussions that they are currently having.
We’ve been in constant contact with them and we will continue to do so. Mahsi.