Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The understanding is that they will be indeterminate unless we decide to give back control to the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not advocating either of those options. Look, I am one of the few MLAs who has probably ever been over to the archives, and it is a well-used facility. It is a great institution there. They are great people. They know the history of the Northwest Territories, and I am glad to hear that those two positions are going to be made permanent because we have a wonderful collection. It is well-used by researchers from southern Canada and even some local people once in a while. I don't care where the funding comes from, wherever, but I am very pleased to hear that those two are permanent positions. I thank the Minister for the response. Thank you. That is all I have.

Thank you. Next, I have Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions on the language. I know that there is a lot of discussion on languages, and I know that the department is basically working with the land claim organizations to do language programs, but I think that we need to do more. Even though the organizations are doing the best that they can with the funding that they get, it is never enough funding.

I think we have a good opportunity here. In the last Assembly, I had the opportunity to travel with the Minister to Alaska. There is a great program that they have there with the Gwich'in language, and it is a shame that we don't send people there to take that course and get their certificate in the Gwich'in language or another language. Inupiat is the same thing, just a different dialect, but that is what I would like to see in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are never enough languages. It is a concern right across Canada, and it should be a concern for all of us MLAs. We do give language monies out. We have regional language coordinators in every region. We give money to the Aboriginal governments. We give money to the education system to Indigenize our grade schools. I am also very hopeful, Mr. Chair, because we have begun the visioning exercise. I am hoping that people throughout the Northwest Territories, including the MLAs here, will identify, hopefully, that Indigenous languages are something that we need to look at in our post-secondary, as well. Although, like I say, that is my wish. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Anything further, Mr. Blake?

Yes, thank you. Any time our students want to travel out for school, it is always a challenge with SFA. I think that we should have a separate pot of funding for students who are taking Indigenous languages. That would be a real benefit to them, to take those courses, especially if you have to go to Alaska, for example, because that is one of the best programs out there. That should be available to people who want to take that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do agree that we need to support anyone who actually looks at taking courses in Indigenous languages. Thanks to the federal funding, we have changed our courses that are available right now at Aurora College. It used to be a certificate program in language revitalization, and now we have bumped it up to actually being a degree program. Oh, it's still a certificate.

The other thing that we have is we have expanded our scholarships to provide for students [microphone turned off]...program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will remind everyone that, if the light is on, your sidebar conversations can likely be heard, just so people know. Nothing further from Mr. Blake. Next, we have Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question for the Minister relates to page 37. I am wondering if she could tell us the last year in which arts organization operating funding was increased. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will have to get back to the committee on when the last increase to the arts organization operating funding was. You will see in the mains that there is $200,000 provided to the NWT Arts Council. It was a supplemental last year, in this mains. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The page that I have has $460,000 for the next fiscal year, this fiscal year, and the fiscal year prior to that. My question really is, given the importance of festivals and cultural events to tourism and the growth in tourism, whether the Minister has considered increasing this line item to drive that segment of our economy. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think that we do need to look at our arts community. It is another diversification of the economy. It is something that I think we need to support. We are just finalizing the Arts Strategy, which will be provided. It is just going through Cabinet and will be going to standing committee. Then, after that, we are developing an action plan. Within that action plan, we will identify increases as needed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

That is good news. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear that I am talking about arts organization operating funding, not NWT Arts Council funding. Are we talking about the same thing? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. The strategy goes across all sectors. It does not just look at the arts council; it looks at the arts community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.