I'll send that back to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So that puts us back up, luckily, to replace that sunset that's seen in that area but it doesn't put us up and above and considering that in a year where we couldn't really have tourism, we spent over $4 million. Right now, I think would be a time to be able to kind of tap into a market that the GNWT wasn't a leader in but had a lot of potential to be a leader in, and that's that eco and cultural tourism. Before the pandemic, BC was seeing like massive -- hundreds of millions of dollars in cultural tourism. And I think that the NWT has some incredible, incredible, cultural experiences to offer, especially outside of Yellowknife. And so my next question is what is ITI doing, along with this CanNor funding and Destination Canada and NWTT, in order to drive tourism outside of Yellowknife? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I couldn't agree more. I mean, and I think I've said this, that the benefits of taking tourists outside of Yellowknife benefits Yellowknife, benefits -- or outside of Inuvik, benefits Inuvik. They're still coming in and coming through regional centres as well. I mean, Madam Chair, the money that's allotted here under tourism and tourism product development is not -- is certainly not just for regional centres. It's really meant for those small operators and often it's the small operators that are, you know, the ones that will truly provide that sort of one-on-one and personal experience.

So, you know, I'm kind of going back to this being money that's going to the tourism coordinators, the individual communities, and the marketing of all of those opportunities by NWT Tourism, they understand -- and I've had the opportunity to look at what the products were that they had right at the beginning of the pandemic, or I guess right before the pandemic, they were territorial-wide. They were focused on that breadth of experience. And, you know, wanting to -- yeah, I mean I -- again, I'll kind of be mindful of the time here, that there's two minutes left. It's -- it's literally the focus of all of the money that's here. It's the point of all of it that's here, to make sure that that is something that benefits the whole territory and that the operators are ready for it when folks are coming to their communities, which was probably a place of challenge before the pandemic. A lot of the money we've spent in the last couple of years on recovery has actually been money that can be used for, you know, training, for infrastructure, for product development. So, you know, hopefully if that was successful, folks are even in a better place to in fact be welcoming people back. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, with my last one minute here, I just wanted to kind of make I guess put a little plug in for some -- some food for thought here. And there's nothing that drives me more crazy than when I get to a retail outlet that is selling mass produced arts from down south. We have so much to offer here in the territory. There are so many people, even in this room right now, that are wearing locally produced art very passionately. We have Minister Simpson wearing his vest, which he told me he made himself and I believed him for a very short period of time. He did not?

But I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how the economic diversification key activity is working together with the parks and tourism key activity to bring our local crafters and artisans together with our tourists and our retailers? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, it is part -- that does fall under the arts strategy that of course is shared between ITI and ECE, but to the extent that it's shared within ITI, you know, I mean we're not -- we're not such a huge department that there's not collaboration from within the same department. And there's a lot of displays that are out at the tourism intake points, a lot of work that's trying to be done, again probably more on the art strategy side around ensuring that the producers themselves and the artists know how to get their products out, how to market them, how to develop their web sites. You know, everything right down to the polar bear diamond, if I might go in to yet one of the other activities that we had, you know, and the interest there that they're using arts to promote and they're, you know, trying to put themselves out there in a way that folks are associating all those items with the Northwest Territories. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

I didn't have my hand up. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Oh, I thought you did before -- whoops. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I won't repeat everything my colleagues have said around the tourism support funding and the CanNor, and I appreciate the Minister's response to those, and I'm looking forward to more CanNor funding announcements down -- down the line. So I think that's great.

My question is around at one point, the federal government had been talking about incentivizing tourism and movement of Canadian tourists within the country, and they were sort of calling it at the time, at the FPTs, like a -- a sort of a grant or like a tax benefit or such. I'm just wondering if there's been any further discussion from the feds about that sort of thing? So not necessarily funding to the territory but rebates or incentives to the individual tourist to come here. And then specifically is there -- if that is the case, is there anything specific to the North? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there was the change from the federal government in their last budgetary cycle now so that the travel benefits are no longer requiring folks to have that from their employer, that they can be brought more broadly claimed, and that, you know, does hopefully incentivize people, at least in the Northwest Territories, to travel. That's not necessarily the full Canada-wide kind of incentive that we might then, you know, hope for that could really draw people up to the Northwest Territories. So we don't -- I don't know if there's a tax credit or a tax incentive to do that sort of on a nation-wide basis but I can say that there's -- we've had a couple of FPTs now with the tourism minister, and the new tourism minister, Minister Boissonnault, is very keen to see a growth in this sector for all regions. I mean, everyone's had such an impact from COVID that I think there's a real pent-up -- not only demand but sort of a pent-up on the side of the supply of wanting to see that growth. So, you know, never know what might come but we'll kind of go from there. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would actually really strongly encourage the Minister to go back and work with her two territorial colleagues to really push the federal government for a northern travel incentive. I really actually think it's fantastic because if they're pushing in, say, in Ontario, it'll benefit three provinces as people make their way over here or potentially looking at -- and around a road trip type maybe situation. So I like what the Minister's saying but I actually would like her to raise that specifically if she could.

But my next question is around the visitor information centre line, and I see that there is quite a significant jump -- well, significant for this department, in the visitor information centre line. And I believe that has to do with the visitors centre that has not been existent in Yellowknife for a while.

Can the Minister speak to that line item and the jump and how is this new centre going to be that destination -- I forget what the -- the call is where it is that spoke or the centre to the hub that goes out to the -- to the rest of the territory. Is it the destination marketing? I'm not sure if I'm labelling it right. But -- but in the past, that had been a frustration expressed I think by small community operators and such that it was, you know, Yellowknife centric, that visitors centre, and so I'm just wondering how that will change in the new iteration. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think there's a couple of different things kind of squished in there. So there definitely was a bump here that is going to benefit the Yellowknife visitors centre which is expected to have something of a hub element to it. But there's also funding within this -- that's meant to be more generally providing opportunities for upgrades to other visitor centres as well. I don't have the detail here. I'd suggest that go to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister Strand.