Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, I'm quite pleased to get that question. I can say a couple of things quickly, mindful of time, although I would be happy to go on longer if I had more time.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, the MIP, or the Mineral Incentive Program funding, this is the amount of funding that is provided to exploration projects of all different sorts. And out of the almost $1.5 million disbursed thus far, Mr. Speaker, over $1.2 million of it went to critical minerals and metals projects, including a good proportion for lithium projects. So there's that.
It helps leverage dollars. So companies have to bring their own funding to bear and only then can they access this funding. So it leverages significant amounts of funds but provides an important incentive to the mineral resource industry here.
But secondly, Mr. Speaker, is with respect to criticals and minerals more broadly, we are looking to bring our own action plan, or priorities document, to put out into the public sphere the importance and the role of critical minerals and the future mineral resource industry of the Northwest Territories. And I am looking forward to that being out before the end of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.