This is page numbers 5353 - 5396 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5365

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Economic diversification and business support beginning on page 229, with information item on pages 230 to 232. Any questions? Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I like this area of the budget. It's really the place where -- given my -- or really the Minister's reply that I gave to the budget address today, we can tell that the non-diversification of our economy is quite concerning with the sunsetting of the diamond mines. So my first question is going to be around the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. I note that in the estimates for 2023-2024 that it's at $1.2 million, and prior to that we saw actuals of $488,000.

So can the Minister or the department please let us know what that significant increase of money is for and maybe just a little bit more about some of the future work that's being done there. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the CAP, or the Canadian Agricultural Partnership agreement, is a bilateral agreement with the federal government. It does get renegotiated time to time. And there has been a new framework that was negotiated with the provinces and territories and the federal government. So we are expecting, as a result of that, a 25 percent increase to the overall funding envelope.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

February 16th, 2023

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's wonderful. I'm sure the Minister's aware we had our food security panel recently and have had a couple, actually, of different presenters come in. I just really can't underscore how important food security is and that also it isn't really always, though, a money issue. So if the Minister hasn't watched or her staff hasn't watched that food panel, I would definitely recommend that they take a look at that.

My next question is just -- I note that there is some sunsetting here of different supports, which I would assume are because of the COVID funding etcetera sunsetting. That would be things like the regional relief and recovery fund and as well the -- just various contributions for ECDEV and business support. So I'm not going to ask a lot about that. However, I do look and note that when we look at some of our arts and film industry type subsidies -- or sorry, contributions, they're not really increasing by much. I know we've put $200,000 into the film industry rebate, which I think is great. However, I really am struggling to understand how we would think that film can go anywhere in the North if only we've got towards it is $300,000.

So can the Minister speak to what is the plan there. I know she's spoken in the House already about film but are we going to see, say in 2024-2025, a bigger jump there? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair -- yeah, I mean at this point we'd like to get through 2023-2024's budget before I have a hope about what might happen in 2024-2025.

But with respect to film, we certainly did see -- this was an area where we are seeing a significant amount of growth, both in terms of local production but also in terms of the amount of films that are coming and scouting locations. This was actually an area that saw a lot challenge in COVID because people couldn't travel into the territories even though they were asking. They were looking to come and get ready to film so that they'd be ready to go when COVID lifted and that obviously wasn't how we approached keeping everyone safe here in the Northwest Territories.

The good news is though, is that the interest remains and there's been a lot of growth in this area. So this is a significant increase to the budget, to go -- it's more than doubling where it was at, but there is certainly that demand there. And if it is successful and is utilized successfully, which we fully expect it will be, then there may be an argument in favour of seeing something more in the future. But at this point, we'll be happy to spend the money that's been projected or been allocated at this point. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do appreciate that the Minister does not have a crystal ball to tell us what's going to happen in the future. But I know that -- I think I can even speak for my colleagues that this is an area where obviously we would support, I think, increased funding.

Another area where we would support increased funding is under the SEED program. And one of the reasons I really enjoyed -- like the SEED program is that it's not specific to any type of industry, and really anybody can access. And I very much try to promote people when they tell me they have a business idea that they need to go and talk to ITI about getting themselves some SEED support. So I know why we've gone from $4.2 million to 3.86. That is additional money that was put in for COVID. I am disappointed though that we didn't maintain that extra funding and, really, I think that we should actually really look at increasing this more, not only by what maybe we might be wanting as Regular Members but even greater than that, because it can just be used so versatilely.

So can the Minister speak to whether or not we think we're going to see an increase in funding for the SEED pot? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Chair, this is certainly an area that I know can be very popular in terms of having that SEED support. What we did during COVID was because there was other areas that weren't being fully utilized in light of the restrictions and changes during the pandemic, there was some ability to move money over to the SEED program to provide supports at times when small businesses were very much struggling. As far as what the future of the program is, we are -- you know, this is an area where there hasn't been a significant in-depth review done in some time. It is still a significant amount of public dollars that goes out into the private sector, in an area that I would agree, is quite important. So at this point looking for an opportunity to, you know, make sure that that funding is being utilized effectively and then potentially seeing it come through another initiatives process in the future. But, again, that's a bit speculative right now. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, again, as I echoed, said before, I think you would definitely find support from the Regular Members for more money into that. We often talk about getting money into communities, etcetera, is better for our economy than having it sit in the government pots.

Speaking of that, the community futures - sorry, the community transfer initiatives -- no, I'm looking at the wrong one. What am I looking at here? Community futures, sorry. Perhaps maybe we could think of some different naming for some of these pots, but.

I note that it's at $450,000. We had given $600,000 before. This is the area where there are a couple community futures organizations that are not under the funding or under the umbrella or support of the GNWT. Is that correct, Mr. Chair?

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Chair, there is just one that is operating on its own. Its I believe in Hay River, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I was talking about the right thing before I proceeded. Is there any chance then that this community futures group would be brought back into the fold so to say, and what really is -- this is again another area where I think perhaps some increased money would be useful as it takes the burden off the department to find the people to give money to and gives it to a different organization. However, I have heard complaints that at times these organizations are not being fairly run or at times that there's appearance of favoritism in the communities.

So can the Minister or department speak a bit to is there any reach that they have in there that they then use to sort of control that and, really, this negligent sort of increase of less than 20K isn't really that much. So, again, another area I would support increased funding for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the one organization that's not part of the community futures program formally, Mr. Chair, that's been a decision of their own making. I'm certainly happy to see them come back should they wish to be part of this particular process and the funding pot and the funding stream. There's reporting requirements and obviously requires the organization to have its books in order and to be able to report on them and whether they want to follow the guidelines as provided. But certainly can't force anyone to modify their governing structure according to what we would expect to have public dollars. And then as for, you know, seeing further increases, again the 2.2 percent that was put out by the Department of Finance was, you know -- can't necessarily predict what inflation was doing but it was meant to reflect a CPI increase. And I know the Bank of Canada is hoping we'll be back down at 3 or 4 percent next year so hopefully that ongoing 2 percent increase will be a little more meaningful as time goes on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5366

Katrina Nokleby

Katrina Nokleby Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And if I don't already have this in the schedules, could the Minister provide me with the breakdown of the different community futures and how much money they're each getting? It perhaps is in the schedules and maybe she just needs to remind me of which page that's on. I'll let her answer that.

But I just want to do one last thing while I've got 17 seconds left here. The northern food development program, glad again to see that we've sustained the funding of $550,000. However, again, my comment being that it's probably too low. Can the Minister speak a little bit to whether or not there's other funding that they can find or whether that money is going to go -- the number's going to go up? Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5367

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Minister.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5367

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And certainly we'll commit to make sure we can provide the breakdown. I'm not sure if it's in the schedules for sure or not. I don't need to read it out here.

And as for an increase to the northern food development program, again, at this point, our understanding is that it is actually meeting needs. This isn't a program that's necessarily oversubscribed. But I'll certainly take that comment back and just confirm with the department that that continues to be the case. It certainly was from 2022-2023 until now. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 5367

The Chair

The Chair Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi. Next up, Ms. Cleveland.