Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Yes, very much so. I've made that commitment at the Council of Leaders that this would be a very collaborative co-development process, and I believe the first meeting was actually today between the department and the partners and the Council of Leaders. So yes, it will be very, very collaborative. I'm fully committed to that. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

That's good, yeah, I just wanted to ask that, double check.

Thank you. All right. So are there any further questions under this section?

Seeing none, Education, Culture and Employment, corporate management, operation expenditures summary, 2022-2023 Main Estimates, $11,264,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Committee, we will now begin culture, heritage, and language beginning on page 36, with information items on page 37 to 39. Questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I can't stress enough I think the importance of this section, and I think we're coming into some sort of decade of awareness around culture, and I'm not quite sure I have that right. But I'm sort of disappointed to see that we're not getting too much more of an increase in funding here to support our northern performers, to our arts council. I guess this is on my forefront because I've just been doing a bunch of support letters for the arts funding.

So I guess could the Minister speak to why we're not really seeing too much of an increase here, and is there an opportunity to perhaps put more funding into these areas of Indigenous languages, etcetera? I am glad to see the increase for the broadcasting. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you for that, and so there's -- yeah, there's a few areas here. So we have things like culture and heritage and we have Indigenous languages. Most of our Indigenous languages funding, or a significant portion of it, comes from the federal government and we have been negotiating with the federal government for a new agreement. We are not -- don't have that signed off yet but we expect that we will get an extension of what we currently have.

There has been a lot of work in the past number of years on Indigenous languages, and I think it is one of the bright spots in the GNWT.

And in terms of the culture funding, funding for the arts, things like that, we are embarking on a review of all of our arts funding as part of the review noted in the art strategy, and that will inform future funding. So perhaps we can spend the money we have in a more efficient way, or perhaps we want to seek some targeted increases, but that work is underway and I will, you know, reiterate what was mentioned earlier, that the department has a lot of different initiatives right now and it would be great if we could do everything at once but the fact is we sort of have to space these things out. And so we prioritize a number of areas, and the work is happening for that and the work for the -- you know, the work on the art strategy and that sector is -- it's in the future as laid out in the art strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I do hear good things in amongst the arts community, the ones that do reach out to me. I guess I would like to reiterate a concern I guess I think we raise often, and that is the multiyear funding and that these are the types of organizations that can benefit from having guaranteed funding for several years versus having to always apply for this funding. This way they can hire staff. They are more guaranteed to be stable. And I do believe now that the NWT music does have a paid position, where before it was all volunteer, but maybe the Minister could speak a little bit more to whether that seems to be a possibility going forward for that sort of core type of funding? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, and that's exactly the things that we're looking at under the review of the art strategy, how we can best support organizations. Maybe, you know, project funding is not as efficient as a different type of multiyear funding. So that's exactly the type of things we're looking at. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, again, this is an area where if we increase some of this funding to these types of programs, we would then see an uptake in regional employment and employment in small communities. I know my colleagues have often raised being able to sell crafts etcetera online. So I guess I'm not sure if I have too much of a question there but more just of a comment that I think that we could be very smart with the money here, and I guess maybe I'll ask the Minister what is he doing to ensure that that money is going into the hands of small community artists as well? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. And perhaps I will hand it to the deputy minister for some more detail, but first I will say that we do fund the arts at the second highest level in Canada, after the Yukon. So we are providing some significant funding. But in terms of how we support a lot of the small artisans in the territory, which is what, you know, the territory is made up of, I can hand it to the deputy minister through you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess just to ask a little bit further about the Minister's comment regarding that we are the second highest funded in Canada, I guess my question is is that an overall second highest amount, or is that sort of a per capita fund? Because I -- my point or the reason I ask is that if -- I think it's harder to deliver this type of work in the North, like everything else that we do. So if it is just a sole amount, I don't know that that necessarily makes up for the difficulty maybe for our people to execute programs or a lack of capacity for executing programs and services in the arts. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So it's a -- we fund the arts to the second highest degree per capita. I think one of the differences between our jurisdiction and southern jurisdictions is that there are larger arts entities that can access third party funding, federal funding, things like that, that a lot of our smaller artisans here can't do just by the fact that they don't have that infrastructure around them. So while the government is providing funding, I think the artists are missing out on other avenues, and we want to capitalize on that, and that's part of the -- one of the goals of the review through the art strategy. Thank you.