Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister just confirm that the work, including the action plan, will be done during the remainder of this Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working very closely with the NWT Arts Council. We are just finishing up the Arts Strategy, the draft, which will have to go to standing committee. As soon as that is approved by standing committee and here, then we will be actually working on the action plan. I will try to get that done in this Assembly, but I can't commit that it will, because it is important that we get this right. Like I said, the strategy came across my desk, and I flipped it right back and said, "Let the Arts Council." I have committed to actually working very closely with the arts council on this, and I want to honour my commitment to the Arts Council. We will try our best, but we can't commit that it will be completed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you for that response. Nothing further.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Next, Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the previous speaker and the Minister with regard to starting to talk a little bit about the NWT Arts Strategy, because that is what I would like to touch on maybe a little bit more.

To what extent you can, can you share with us a little bit about what the Arts Strategy will undertake? What I mean is that I am not just interested in doing some of the good things that we have done in terms of assigning resources and particular finances to a number of the arts festivals and artists themselves, et cetera, but whether we are looking at opportunities to use resources to diversify arts, how we will tag arts into tourism, how we will promote and exploit Indigenous culture in terms of the arts? I would like you, if you can, to maybe explain a little more to us exactly what the strategy will be undertaking. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Haener.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Okay. That is great, Mr. Chair. Thank you, and I appreciate the additional insight. Just one last quick question, then. Clearly, we are doing a lot of interdepartmental work on making sure that the appropriate departments are contributing to the strategy. Just to confirm that? Then, secondly, maybe a little bit, if you can, about what we are expecting to see in an action plan would be nice to hear, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we worked interdepartmentally, especially with ITI. We have shared the document in draft with the deputy minister. We are waiting to bring it to Cabinet and then to standing committee. The action plan actually moves forward. I think there are five areas in the strategic plan. The strategic plan is more of an overarching document, and then the action plan really is very concrete: how are we going to achieve these goals that we have set forth? The strategic plan is the overarching goals; the action plan is where the work is going to be done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Vanthuyne. Seeing nothing further from committee, I will call this activity. Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage, and languages, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $17,883,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to the third activity, early childhood and school services. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions relate to page 41, starting with early childhood development and learning. I notice that there is an $800,000 decrease from the revised estimates for the current fiscal year compared to the next fiscal year. I am wondering if the Minister can tell us why funding in this area has gone down. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gareau.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you to Ms. Gareau for that response, and also for catching the extra number there. Could she please provide more detail about the difference between the projects in the two years? Thank you.

Thank you. Directing this to Ms. Haener, I take it. Ms. Haener.

Thank you. Ms. Green.