Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Next, I have Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will take this opportunity to acknowledge the recent announcement of additional funding for the Arts Council and commend the government for their efforts towards supporting the arts in the Northwest Territories.

I have some questions about the support to northern performers item, which is on page 37, and on page 38, it gives some detail on the purposes of it: "Grants to performing artists, festival organizations and events, community governments and band councils for the promotion of performing arts in NWT communities."

An ongoing area of advocacy for many of my honourable friends has been around a touring grant in support for northern performers so that they can maintain their residency here in the North, live in the North, and be allowed to travel elsewhere and that the government provide subsidies to allow that. The government has often turned towards this funding, the support to northern performers, as the "it already happens and there are no additional resources needed."

I would just like to get a sense of where this money goes. Can the Minister give some detail on who is receiving contributions from the support to northern performers funding? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do not have that level of detail of who is receiving it. You did hear in the House today during the question period that we did give funding to the Inuvialuit Drummers and Dancers to go to the gathering down in Edmonton, but if the Member would like, we can look at getting some of that information for him. I believe there were about 20 groups that got the funding last year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be voting on this item shortly, so I don't need the information later. I would appreciate if the Minister had that information when we ask these questions in this Committee of the Whole review. However, I just want to get clarification.

I think the Drummers is an example of a group that should be getting a support to go on tours, but this is particularly broad. It also supports festival organizations and events, community governments, and band councils. What do those contributions look like? Are we providing contributions to Long John Jamboree, to Muskrat Jamboree, to those kind of events, or is it only going to northern performers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't get into all 20 of them, but yes, we are funding Long John Jamboree Society, Snowking Winter Festival, Folk on the Rocks, Great Northern Arts Festival, Kole Crook Fiddle Association, Western Arctic Moving Pictures, Tides Canada Initiatives Society; the list goes on. In due time, I will just save reading the whole list and just give an idea of some of the groups that we do fund. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for the clarification from the Minister. In this section, too, we see arts organizations operating funding in the amount of $460,000, and these are stated as "contributions to provide ongoing operational support to established arts organizations and large cultural events and festivals in the Northwest Territories."

I would like to ask the Minister: if there is dedicated funding to support festivals such as that were just on that list, what is the difference, I guess, between the two funding sources when they are going to the same organization?

What has been addressed in the House, Mr. Chair, has been a need for dedicated funding support for Northern artists who are on tour to southern Canada, which, as everyone in the Northwest Territories understands, is very expensive. There is very little incentive for a Northerner to stay here when they could be moving to Vancouver or Toronto, where it is much easier to do festival circuits and to get around. The artists who are staying here love it here, and we ought to be supporting them with some sort of dedicated touring. My concern is, if it is only $101,000 and it's wide open for everyone to look for resources, then perhaps we need to streamline this to be a little more specified so that we can support those artists and keep them here in the North so that we don't lose them to the South. It is good to be flexible, but it is also good to be specific when we are trying to achieve a specific policy gain for northern artists. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the arts organizations operating funding, that is a lot for the O and M side of things with the organizations. The support to northern performers, again, let's take Western Arctic Moving Pictures, for example. We fund their operations, but we also fund them to go out and do the travel. Support to northern performers supports cultural delegations to things like Arctic Winter Games, Minister's Culture and Heritage Circle, international festivals, and NWT Days that we have had in the past in Ottawa, as well as things like the Circumpolar Games. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am assuming that some of the support to northern performers monies are being used by -- sorry, let me ask: is this money given on conditions, or is it just transferred to the organizations? Is there an application process that says how they need to use the money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, with the grant contribution agreement that we go into, there is an accountability component. So, yes, there are conditions applied to this when we fund them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Is support to northern performers money being provided to festival organizations to bring in southern performers to the Northwest Territories to perform at those festivals? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In some cases, yes, it can be used for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's my point; right? It's support to northern performers, and we need something to do that and be specific in providing that level of support.

I want to be clear for the record today that I am not advocating we reduce funding to festival organizations. They are a very important part of our Northern culture and our communities, and I would never recommend removing any kind of funding from them. What I am talking about is that there is a real need that northern performers, some of them nationally recognized and award-winning northern performers, have brought forward to this government and are looking for additional support.

I will conclude with this: in the review of our arts strategy, will some dedicated effort be given to this idea of a northern touring grant, and can that be part of the work going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like any other of our strategies that we have worked on developing, we would have to create a discussion paper. As I mentioned, I have to talk with my colleague in the Department of ITI moving forward before we see what those discussions will look like. Thank you, Mr. Chair.