Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. We are open to everything, and I think meeting with the interpreters will bring a lot of those ideas to the forefront. We don't necessarily, ECE, hire a lot of interpreters. It's places like the Legislative Assembly, it's Indigenous government meetings, it's things like that. Yes, any of those kinds of ideas, I'm happy to look into. The department is very engaged. We have people very engaged with communities on this, so we really get to hear from communities. If the Members are interested, we are more than happy to provide a detailed briefing on the work of the Indigenous languages secretariat, and we've been champing at the bit to get in front of committee on that one. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Just a final comment. It really is like any other trade. There is a tradecraft here, and I think the Minister is right. There is a mentor-apprentice kind of relationship. For me, it's exciting, and hopefully, we could explore that and go down that road. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Committee, we will take a short break and resume.

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I now call committee back to order. We were under Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage, and languages. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just trying to get my head back into where we were, I wanted to maybe just talk a little bit about how I'm really glad to see that none of the funding really has been cut for a lot of this cultural programming. I think that's great. I would have actually been supportive of an increase to the funding. What I look at here, when I look at a lot of these types of programs, is this is an area where we often talk about the lack of P1s and the ability to have meaningful employment with the GNWT for that group. If we are looking at Indigenous languages, community, cultural type grants and contributions, to me, this seems like a great area in which we could be increasing P1 employment. I am looking at stuff such as the support to northern performers. The department has things that are going to festival organizations and such, which I think might be difficult this year, and I do understand that there will be a move to put things online and be virtual.

I am almost wondering if, perhaps, some of this money could be repurposed towards employment and looking towards hiring people under these types of programs versus giving out grants and contributions all of the time. We would be then working towards building our cultural product for when tourism does return. It's more of a comment than a question, or maybe the Minister could explain what he is doing to look towards that kind of repurposing of this money towards maybe something different in the COVID lens. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. Last year, and it's odd to call it last year; it seems like we're still in the COVID year. We had the same situation where there weren't big festivals. What we did is: we were very flexible because there are organizations who rely on this support in order to stay afloat, and there are still things that people can do without getting together. We were very flexible in how we allocated funds to ensure that we still did get out into the community, and they were being spent in the territory. It might not be direct job creation, but it is money circulating. Perhaps, to talk about the plans for this year, I could ask the deputy minister to take a shot at it. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you for that. My comment in a nutshell is just to be more nimble and flexible so that the departments can support people in transitioning forward. One of the things that I have been hearing a lot, though, from the artist community was the need for actual direct relief funding due to COVID. A lot of them are sort of working part-time jobs and such. Maybe they didn't always necessarily qualify for CERB or things like that. I know that the one funding that was done under ITI had strings attached. It was a project-based one. It was pretty simple. I'm just wondering if the department is looking at ways to maybe repurpose some of this arts funding. Again, I recognize not taking funding from existing organizations, but helping to create some sort of relief funding or less strenuous or arduous funding to access for artists. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. During the last year, we did really, I don't want to say lower the bar, but we made it a lot easier for this to be accessed. I did have a number of FTPs and one-on-one calls with the federal Minister, as well. They did provide some arts relief, but it was not structured for our territory. It was flowed through larger organizations that represent artists, but we don't have such organizations here. I did a lot of advocacy on behalf of that. In the second round of money, I think that there was a bit more flexibility to it, but not to the extent that people would like. To the Member's point, as well, the support for artists is also often support for people's livelihoods, as well, because if you're making and selling crafts, that type of support is needed. I can ask the deputy minister if she has anything else to add. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you for that. I am trying to also do my best to support NWT artists with my earring purchases and such, so I am glad to hear of the continued support. I am really interested, though; I noticed you have the Tlicho cultural coordinator position. I note in the notes that it is one-third funded by the GNWT, federal government, and the Tlicho, and I am assuming that that comes out of their arrangement or agreement. Can the Minister speak to whether or not there are going to be further similar type positions funded in different communities for different Indigenous organizations or groups? I think it's a great way, again, to increase employment in small communities, and I am just wondering if there is a plan to expand that out past the Tlicho, as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. I would have to ask the deputy minister for information on that. Thanks.

Thank you. Deputy Minister Mueller.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Great Slave.