Thank you, Ms. Strand. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can wait until we get further down. That's all for now.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Are there further questions under ITI corporate management? If not, we will turn to page 199. Industry, Tourism and Investment, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $9,140,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will now go to economic diversification and business support, beginning on page 201, with information items up to page 205. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping the Minister could provide me with any attempts to hire BDIC a CEO and whether we're using a headhunting firm to obtain that position. Considering we have about half a million dollars of taxpayer money, I think it's one of the most important positions in the public service. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The BDIC job opening has closed. We have received a good number of applications. We are encouraged by the applications we have received. We did not use a headhunter. When I first came into this role, that was one of the first conversations I had, was the new CEO. At the time, with my history of what I've seen in the North, to me, what I found we get from headhunters is often someone from a southern centre who may be very good on paper and qualified in the work that they're going to do, and no disparaging them, but they don't understand the North, so, when the corporate headhunter conversation was had with me, I very quickly shut that down. So I personally take responsibility that we did not use a corporate headhunter. I felt that we needed to have somebody who lived in the North and understood the North. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that gets to the heart of what the BDIC is. I think, in the past, we've seen a number of boards that have kind of not used it as a development corporation. It has a number of subsidiaries under it that simply lose money year after year, and perhaps the corporation's purpose is to be a make-work project, but I view it as something that should be really a world-class development and investment corporation. I think there's a significant element of venture capital missing, finding other private equity firms. I guess, can the Minister update me on plans to work with this new CEO and the new board to get BDIC on track? Maybe we can move some of the losing ventures out of it and restructure them in a way such that they're not really weighing the organization down, because I don't think we're seeing the return on investments that I would expect to see from BDIC. So if the Minister could speak to that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that pretty much everybody sitting on this side campaigned on a bit of a change mandate, so that does completely incorporate, as well, the BDIC. I can't speak to why the BDIC has been run how it's been run. I have heard the same and similar complaints that the Member has raised, or concerns or issues the Member has raised. When having that conversation with Ms. St-Denis, who is currently the acting CEO of the BDIC, we both recognized that there could be changes that should be made and really a re-evaluation of the purpose of what the BDIC is doing and how it's spending its money. However, we felt that it would not be fair for me as a Minister and her as an acting CEO to come in right now and make changes when we were looking for a new CEO. We want to see what that person's thoughts are. If we are hiring them, we want someone with great ideas who is going to move the BDIC forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would appreciate it if the Minister could work with the new CEO and really give the BDIC a mandate for change. There is a large surplus in there. I recognize part of that is legislated and they have to have it, but, at the end of the day, I really think that in letting the BDIC be a little more arms-length has a lot of exciting venture capital possibilities. There are all sorts of private equity firms looking to invest and looking to find interesting projects.

Moving on, I would like to speak to the $450,000 for our commercial fisheries. Could the Minister provide me a breakdown of that figure by region? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't believe I have the breakdown by region on hand. I'm just looking over at my witnesses to see if they have it on hand. I see Ms. St-Denis is nodding her head, so I'll pass it over to her. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. St-Denis.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I have had commercial fishers in Yellowknife North try to apply to this in the past and not get it. I know it has been quite successful to my members in the South Slave. I think it's also somewhat lacking in some of our ocean fisheries. I guess I would just leave a comment for the Minister that perhaps a bit of a review needs to be conducted. Fishing happens on both sides of the lake, and it certainly happens in the Arctic Ocean, and I think there is a huge potential to really grow the NWT fishing industry if we look at the territory from the whole. There are a lot of things I'm very excited about in this one page, so I'm going to try to get through them, Madam Chair.

Moving into the film industry rebate, I see in last year's main estimates it was $200,000. It is now $100,000. I believe we should actually look at increasing this and reforming it to be a bit more of a film production incentive program, something similar to the exploration incentive program. Can the Minister explain to me why we have decreased the funding for the film industry? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We did have a decrease of $100,000, which was a sunset from the CanNor support for the film industry projects in 2019-2020. We had an increase of $100,000, so it balanced out that CanNor then gave us much more money for another project in 2019. We had a variance of about, I think, $19,000 in that one, and it was an outstanding payment from 2017-2018 that was captured in the following year. I do agree with the Member's statement that I would like to see supports for the film industry and will continue to have that conversation with my department. I think it's one of our exciting sectors of diversification in the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member.