Merci, Monsieur le President. Committee wishes to deal with Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022; and, Tabled Document 813-19(2), 2023-2024 Main Estimates, with Industry, Tourism and Investment. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, committee. We shall take a short recess.

---SHORT RECESS

Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022. I will ask the Minister of Justice to introduce the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022.

The purpose of Bill 57 is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed or errors or inconsistencies have been identified.

Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

1. it must not be controversial;
2. it must not involve the spending of public funds;
3. it must not prejudicially affect rights; and
4. it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the various statutes being amended have reviewed and approved the changes brought forward in this bill.

The proposed amendments are minor, uncontroversial or non-substantive, and many consist of technical corrections. The amendments are of such a nature that the preparation and legislative consideration of individual bills to correct each statute would be time-consuming for the government and the Legislative Assembly.

This concludes my opening remarks and I would be pleased to answer any questions the Members have. Thank you.

Mahsi, Minister. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, I would.

Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Mahsi.

Please introduce your witness.

Thank you. With me, I have Christina Duffy, director of legislation division with the Department of Justice. Thank you.

I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, the committee that reviewed the bill, for any opening comments on Bill 57. MLA for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on October 20th, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

On February 13th, 2023, the Standing Committee on Social Development held a public hearing with the Minister of Justice and completed its clause-by-clause review of the bill. Individual Members may have additional comments or questions at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 57.

Has committee agreed that there are no further general comments or no comments at all?

Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022?

Where possible, I will call the clauses in groups of five. Does committee agree?

Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses.

Please turn to page 1 of the bill.

---Clauses 1 to 43 inclusive approved

We will now return to the bill number entitled Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022. Does committee agree?

Committee, to the bill as a whole, does the committee agree that Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022, is now ready for third reading?

Mahsi, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022?

Mahsi, committee. We have concluded consideration of Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022. Mahsi, Minister, and mahsi to your witness. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witness from the Chamber. Mahsi.

Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 813-19(2), 2023-2024 Main Estimates. We will now consider Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Does the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment have any opening marks?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2023-2024 Main Estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, or ITI. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $1.9 million or 3.1 percent over the 2022-2023 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of ITI while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

• initiative funding totalling $1.40 million, which includes:
• $324,000 to continue our support of the tourism sector under Tourism 2025 towards the five-year investment strategy for the tourism sector;
• $280,000 under the Mineral Development Strategy focused on a Resource and Energy Development Information, or REDI, program designed to improve awareness, understanding, and participation in the Northwest Territories natural resource regulatory system, promotion and marketing; and prospector training, to deliver in-person and virtual introduction to prospecting courses to residents across the Northwest Territories;
• $250,000 to support the development and implementation of regional tourism marketing initiatives;
• $200,000 to increase funding for our Mining Incentive Program to stimulate prospecting and exploration, and increase resource exploration and development in our territory in line with our mandate commitment; and
• $200,000 to continue our support for the growth of film and media sector and increasing the competitiveness of the Northwest Territories NWT generate benefits to the Northwest Territories economy.
• Forced growth funding totalling $169,000, which includes:
• $70,000 to increase contributions to the Northwest Territories tourism to address the rising fixed costs due to inflation and provide stability as the tourism industry returns to pre-COVID levels; and
• $35,000 in funding for the Community Transfer Initiatives Program and $18,000 in funding for the NWT Community Futures Program which are economic development initiatives designed to support business and economic capacity building in the Northwest Territories.
• A change in accounting treatment of $732,000 for the Canadian Agricultural Partnership Program, or CAP, stemming from the review of the Office of the Auditor General that indicated that CAP should be reported as a cost-shared agreement and funding should be classified and reported in Fund 1 operation expenses;
• Other adjustments of $383,000, comprising of $323,000 for secondment program funding, $50,000 for assessing the Northwest Territories Geological Materials for Cement Production, and $10,000 for French language communications and services; offset by a reduction to the contract services budget of $211,000 and $58,000 funding transfer for the office lease cost in Hay River to the Department of Infrastructure; and finally
• Sunsets of $884,000.

These estimates continue to support the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly and vision of Budget 2023, notably by the following:

• A regional approach to service delivery, where many of the department's programs are delivered in partnership with community organizations to support regional decision-making and increasing employment in small communities;
• Focusing on economic diversification by supporting growth in a variety of our sectors and continuing engagement with Indigenous governments, regional and industry leaders, and community members across the territory, on establishing regional economic development plans to increase awareness of economic opportunities;
• Supporting the re-emergence of the tourism sector through the endemic phase of COVID-19;
• Planning to take advantage of Northwest Territories critical minerals to improve mineral security, strengthening the competitiveness of the critical mineral industry, and support the development of secure and reliable supply chains;
• Advance the development of the Mineral Resources Act regulations in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Council, including modernizing the Northwest Territories approach to royalties and socio-economic agreements and to support adopting a benefit retention approach to economic development; and last,
• Finalizing construction and opening of the Hay River fish plant, negotiating a new agreement with the federal government for support for northern agriculture, and collaboration with the Ministers of Health and Social Services, Environment and Natural Resources, and Executive and Indigenous Affairs, to support increasing food security through locally produced, harvested, and affordable food.

That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Does the Minister wish to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Could the Minister please introduce her witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my left I have the deputy minister Pamela Strand. And on my right, Nina Salvador, who is the director of finance for the department.

Committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?

Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with corporate management, starting on page 226, with information item on 227. And I open the floor up for questions. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I'm going to ask a question here about contributions to NGOs and partly because finance and administration is found in this particular activity. So I know that the Minister, wearing a different hat, talked in the budget address about increasing NGO contributions by 2.2 percent I think across the board. Are there any NGOs that ITI funds that did not receive this 2.2 percent increase? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the call that went out to departments was under the forced growth process of business planning, and it was so that those NGOs or non-profits across the Northwest Territories that provide services on behalf of government could now see increases to their budgets given that they are, you know, filling in where public servants would have to step in and provide those services in the alternative. And in that regard, the departments -- or I'm sorry, the organizations on behalf of ITI, who perform those types of functions, include the community futures organizations as well as Northwest Territories Tourism. I don't believe there were any others that we felt met that definition of providing services on behalf of government. So there were no others that we applied that definition to. Thank you.

Mahsi for that. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. And thanks for that response. So I take it then that if you're not community futures, community transfer initiative -- well, you know, I don't want to -- you know what, maybe I'll just wait until we get to some of the other activities to raise this again to find out who got the increase, who didn't get it. Yeah, I think I'll just do that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. O'Reilly. Ms. Nokleby.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is just that there seems to be a trend of under spending in this area, and I'm just wondering if the Minister or the department can explain why that is and if that is the case, then do they need to maybe start thinking of changing how they're doing the budgeting then if they're not spending here? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I presume there's sort of -- there may be a look here at what's happening with some of the actuals. I would just note 2021-2022 was still a COVID year where we would have had a lot of COVID relief funding coming through the department. So while I don't want to presume exactly which line item might be at issue, that is a fairly reasonable chance that that's going to be the situation. One other -- sorry, Mr. Chair, there may be one other explanation available, which is to say that there were some changes in the TSC charge back approach and so there was some under spend in that regard but, again, that can depend on the number of positions, how many of them may be filled and, you know, again with COVID, not necessarily seeing a normal year in terms of who was in our out of the office or relying on their TSC charge back amounts. Thank you.

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm good.

Any further questions on this section? Seeing no further questions. Industry, Tourism and Investment, corporation management, operations expenditure summary, $9,253,000. Does committee agree?

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

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.

Mahsi. Minister.

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.

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

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.

Mahsi. Minister.

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.

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

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.

Mahsi. Minister.

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.

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

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?

Mahsi. Minister.

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

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

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.

Mahsi. Minister.

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.

Mahsi. Ms. Nokleby.

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.

Mahsi. Minister.

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.

Mahsi. Next up, Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm going to pick up where MLA Nokleby left off which was in agriculture there.

And just in terms of the grants that are available to different people involved in agriculture, what I have heard is that the reporting requirements or expectations are a little bit too onerous for the value of the grant. And so I just wanted to kind of leave that there. I do understand from the agri-food association that that is something that they have been following up with the GNWT on, and so I think it's worth noting just so that we can ensure that these dollars get out the door and get into hands of Northerners who want to participate in food growing and be part of that future. So just a note there, Mr. Chair.

My next line of questions that I wanted to ask about was fisheries. And was just laughing with the Member for Hay River South that I never thought I would speak so much about fish as I have in the length of this term, so I appreciate the opportunity.

I understand that the fishery sector support position is being sunset. And I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how they intend to fill the potential gap that might be left by that sunset of the position or how they intend to fulfill that role without those dollars? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so, firstly, just quickly with respect to agri-food, I am conscious of the Member's time but I'm actually at their association AGM next Friday and so certainly can follow up immediately and make note of the fact that this has been brought to our attention with respect to reporting to see exactly what the issue is.

And with respect then to the position for the fisheries, it is, indeed, a sunset but that is in part -- I think there was an expectation that the position was going to seconded to the Tu Cho for two years and in fact now the position is just changing in terms of responsibility in who is paying, Department of Fisheries and Oceans is able now to help with that, support that, and so I'm happy to not have to spend the GNWT's dollars in that respect. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So I see under commercial fisheries and contributions, there's a little bit of a difference, which I assume is that, that sunset there.

Can the Minister speak to whether or not there are any expected legislative changes required to the Fisheries Act coming forward from changes to the fisheries sector expected in the next year and if they have the resources to fulfill that work? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are changes expected but exactly where they will be coming from is still unknown. That is in the sense that the Freshwater Fish Marking Act is a federal piece of legislation. They, the federal government, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has been doing a review of that and is working on some form of transition that I, as of yet, don't know for sure. We are working closely, though, with them. There was, in fact, just a meeting last week with both the Tu Cho Fisher Cooperative here in the Northwest Territories, ourselves, and the FFMC to just make sure everyone's aligned. And right now, our priority is getting the fish plant operational, having a manager in place to run the fish plant and then that will transition so that the FFMC-run plant will transition to ours and that can then allow the process by which the fish can move out to the south directly and we'll, hopefully by that point, know what FFMC's plans are to extricate themselves entirely and allow us to move forward. So then we'll know whether it's -- their legislation that's changing, our legislation that's changing, or exactly when -- we're figuring it'll be about a couple of years of working, Mr. Chair, but right now not anticipating at this time any need for further supports outside of the capacity of the department. Thank you.

Mahsi. Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you Mr. Chair, I just want to repeat I know something that the Minister has heard me say before, but I think it's really important to repeat, and that is that there are existing federally-accredited fish plants in the Northwest Territories already. And I just want to essentially hear a commitment from the Minister to ensure that when they're going through these talks at federal tables that that is recalled and advocated for so that we're not inadvertently pushing out people in the business sector who have had a tremendous amount of investment into this sector already. Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am well aware that there are other fish plants and thrilled that there are other fish plants. We are not even remotely close to meeting our quota of fishing of freshwater fish here in the Northwest Territories. There's ample opportunity. If anything, I think our challenge is more on the side of having more fishers. And we certainly will make that point to raise this issue. I think the deputy minister actually may have an opportunity as early as tomorrow. If this comes up, she's at FFMC's meeting tomorrow just to make that they are aware of the complexity of our industry, that it's not just about the fish plant. But there's no intention to compete, and there's no need to. There's enough fish and enough market for that fish. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I absolutely agree with the Minister and think that there is ample opportunity for business development across the territory and absolutely support that. I just want to make sure that we don't have legislation at the end of the day that cuts out people who maybe are not directly affiliated with the plant but who also support the plant. Which brings me to SEED.

And so, again, in terms of what one of my colleagues noted was the decline in SEED with the removal of the COVID supports. My concern is that with the economy where it is right now and the high rate of inflation, that this is a time where people might be looking for things like SEED in order to expand their business and find every opportunity to do so. And so I think that the more that we can put into SEED and invest in northern economic development, the better.

One of the things that I'm wondering here is in terms of the micro business, if the Minister can speak to whether or not that pot of SEED funding that is specific to artists and artisans was fully subscribed, and if it is and other pots aren't, if they're able to pull from other pots that have not been fully subscribed in order to meet the demand for that one? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, again, I'm happy to hear the support for the SEED program. Again, recognizing it's popular but recognizing, too, that there was a desire just to make sure that that fund is actually being effectively used. We want to make sure that those that are getting the money are using it in a way that grows businesses, in a way that supports local economies. There are some that are frequent returners to the program and that may or may not be the best use of public dollars to actually grow a marketplace economy. But these are all questions that need to be answered in a methodical and analytical way before putting more money into the program. We certainly are able to move money from within this division to support if there's particular elements under SEED, because there are some divisions within SEED-- I'm sure the Member knows -- including micro business. Mr. Chair, I would suggest there's a fairly detailed analysis done in the grants and contributions as to who gets the SEED money. And I'd rather suggest that we -- I not do that, taking up the Member's time, but can certainly provide that information after the fact. I can say I'm informed that we have about $100,000 left right. So even coming up at the end of the fiscal, there's still room in SEED. Thank you.

Mahsi. Ms. Cleveland.

That is excellent news, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for that. So what I would like to know is if the review that's currently taking place with SEED, if that will include a review of the market disruption clause and also any kind of potential down the road for a residency post-grant requirement. So people who are getting SEED aren't turning around as soon as they get it and leaving the territory with that investment in their business, that they're actually staying and doing that business development here in the territory. Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was an effort done to do some engagement on SEED right towards the end of COVID. It wasn't -- it didn't get a lot of uptake in terms of feedback and this is the program where, obviously -- and specifically looking at the question of market disruption. That was one of the main areas that was asked. It is one where there's a divide a bit between small and large centers in terms of whether there should or should not be market disruption. And so while I -- this is policy and it can change, wanted to go back when the economy's settled a little bit so there is a desire, and I know I've spoken to the department just in the last few days, about making sure we get that work done this Assembly, to look at the market disruption clause in SEED and see if we can approve it. So I hope that is a sufficient commitment for the Member. Thank you.

Mahsi. Ms. Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to squeak in one last question, and that is in regards to the manufacturing strategy.

One of the things that came out of the procurement review was a recommendation to actually implement the recommendations that came out of the manufacturing strategy. So I'm wondering if the economic diversification and business support team have the dollars to -- and resources, rather, to actually implement those recommendations and what recommendations we can see implemented before the end of the 19th Assembly? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are still doing some work on the manufacturing strategy. Some of it comes in under the procurement review stream, but I don't have the exact order. Perhaps I'll turn it to the deputy minister if she could give a bit of a brief summary of where we're at on that.

Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Not seeing any further questions on this section -- all the hands came up all of a sudden there. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to go to -- I guess back to the fishing. And we have the revitalization strategy so I'm just wondering if there will be any more additional funds allocated to advancing that strategy and efforts to increase, I guess, the number of fishers into the territories or into the industry? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, right now we did have an influx just as part of the winter fishery obviously for this current fiscal to support the winter fishery. But -- that was a million dollars. As for what might be needed for -- I mean, I don't know how far into the future we're looking. I mean, there may well need to be something further into the future but at the moment, CanNor has provided some significant supports. It's going directly to Tu Cho, not to the GNWT, so it's not necessarily showing up here. But they have received, as I say, a million dollars going in to support their development of the industry. With that kind of support for the moment, there's not an immediate need from the GNWT. Thank you.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So are we looking, I guess, at the federal government programs to, I guess, to advance the revitalization strategy more so than use internal funds? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm happy to take the federal money before I need to spend the GNWT's money. And for the moment, we have seen a fair bit of support from CanNor. And I think I said earlier this fiscal, I think I meant this book in front of me. So it's for the 2023-2024 year that there's a million dollars expected to go in to the Tu Cho on behalf of CanNor. At least that's what we were sort of hoping right now. Nothing is completely confirmed but anticipating that dollar -- that those dollars are invested. And if so, there is not -- again, there's not a need for more money from the GNWT. There has also been a fair bit of money from CanNor into the fish plant and into the fish revitalization strategy. So it's an area where we expect them to continue to be involved, given the investments to date. And, you know, certainly, as with anything, if the GNWT winds up in a situation to have to fill gaps, then that can happen. But for now, it doesn't look like that's a need that's been identified. Thank you.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to question about the Canadian Agriculture Partnership. You know, we see the increase there from 488 to 1220, and I'm just wondering, you know, we're spending that kind of money and what benefits -- or when we will we see benefits from money spent in agricultural-type partnerships or initiatives? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to seeing benefits, I mean, Mr. Chair, this is an area that was seeing fairly significant growth prior to two years of rather significant floods obviously and the agriculture sector was very dramatically impacted by the floods. I know the Member will be very well aware of that. That said, we are seeing that the sector's bouncing back, that folks are returning, and it's hoped that with -- given that there's been this change on the federal system and the increase of money coming through the federal CAP program, that this may be an opportunity for folks to really rebuild in a sort of rapid fashion. So, again, exactly what the timeline of growth will be, perhaps after next Friday when I'm at the agriculture association's AGM, Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to answer more questions about what they envision to be the next steps for their industry. Thank you.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, one of the issues, I guess, well after the flooding is that, you know, location of land that was being used for agriculture. And so some of the people actually are looking for different areas to secure so they can continue. I guess one of the issues is going through the consultation with the Indigenous groups. So is your department, I guess, working with Lands to try and identify and maybe secure lands for people who want to continue farming that are outside of the flood zone? Thank you.

Mahsi. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am familiar with at least one project in particular where I know there was definitely a story of an individual who I think in fact did go ahead and move away. But, Mr. Chair, simple answer, absolutely happy to work with Lands. I know the department officials are already working with Lands and there was, not that long ago, that myself and Minister Thompson often had regular check-ins and meetings because we have overlaps such as this one. So what I can do on my end is confirm that we'll add that to a future meeting that we have between the two departments with Ministers and deputies. Thank you.

Mahsi. Mr. Simpson.