Thanks, Madam Chair. I think there was some one-time CanNor funding or something that was flowed through to the City of Yellowknife in previous years, or am I getting confused? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, there certainly are funds from CanNor that do come through at various points for various initiatives. Let me see if the deputy minister can speak to whether she knows what they may have funded for the City of Yellowknife.

Deputy minister.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So, yes, I think we can probably expect tourism to continue to pick up over the next year with the pandemic basically finally winding down. You know, where are we going with this stuff if there's -- it looks like the only increase in funding here is to NWT Tourism; how are we going to support folks moving forward? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I mean, yes, I certainly also hope that tourism continues to move forward. Right now there is -- I mean, NWT Tourism does do the lion's share, really, of all of our marketing. That was divested to them some years ago as being a specialty area that they can focus on. There is Northwest Territories, the Tourism 2025 still in play right now, which is still being implemented and there's funding for its implementation, and there's quite a number of funding programs still here for in-comers to the industry. So, you know, and the funding has continued to increase with respect to the implementation of T-2025. So, really, I think probably we would hear almost anyone, any department, any program, might say they want more money but at this point, they are -- it's preceding what was planned for in terms of being implementing the T-2025 program which ensures that the funding is flowing in an organized fashion. And for this coming fiscal it's $364,000. So hopeful that that will indeed be more than adequate for this year to keep them moving forward and seeing, hopefully, a return on the private sector revenue side as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't have anything further on this activity. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is around hotel rooms, etcetera, in kind of a little bit not budgety but I think something that really should be aware of is it's come to my attention recently that a lot of the hotel rooms are quite full and that people are struggling to find accommodations, particularly if the accommodation, you know, needs to be booked in a short timeframe. And so I guess that really comes back to I know that some of that space is being taken up by contract workers, etcetera. So I'm just wondering has the Minister or the department had any further conversations with the City of Yellowknife around allowing camps, etcetera, in camp, to then free up some of our hotel rooms for tourism. I guess the reason I ask this is that we have, in the past, had to turn down cold weather testing as a result of not having enough spaces in the hotels. So if the Minister could speak to how do we deal with our hotel capacity issue, that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it's certainly an excellent question. It's one I'm familiar with, really, as happening to be also a Yellowknife MLA. What I'd suggest at this point given that there's some city bylaw challenges potentially and obviously just the overall housing spectrum that is at issue in terms of understanding different needs. ITI can go back and have a conversation with NWT Tourism and the city, and I can certainly commit we'll make a point of doing that with a focus on increasing the availability of appropriate accommodation. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think another -- just to further make a little bit more points or comments around that is that also one of the issues that I hear around having construction camps and mining and other industry around is sort of the byproduct of the partying, etcetera, that may come from some of the workers that do come into town. So another point there for pushing for camps is that in a camp situation, the camp can regulate workers returning to the camp in the evening therefore limiting the amounts of alcohol that they can consume and then be, you know, creating trouble in our downtown core. So just more of a comment around that and why I think it's really important that we start to explore allowing those camps within city limits.

My next question, though, is more related to what the Minister can actually answer which is around the pandemic relief programs. And I know now we've lost a couple of them over the last two years, and there was one that is sunsetting now which is the restart investment program.

Can the Minister or the department speak a bit to where is the federal government going with this? I know that there was a huge conversation as COVID hit around how do we restart tourism in Canada in general and some things around tourism travel grants for travellers, that kind of thing. So I'm just wondering if the Minister could speak a bit to any future federal contributions that are being spoken about and what is the federal government doing to restart our tourism economy. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there was a federal-provincial-territorial meeting just not that long ago in Vancouver, and it certainly I think was reflective that the experience across much of Canada is similar to ours, which is we're seeing a return to some degree, but also acknowledging that a lot of the operators are not uniformly back to where they were and necessarily uniformly back to being in a position to welcome back the tourists who do seem to be coming back in terms of the demand. So there is still some disconnect in that respect. We're not alone in experiencing that.

As far as new money from the federal government, I can say that the impression that we had quite clearly was that there was not a whole lot of new federal money coming in the budget for tourism or for sort of post-COVID relief which, you know, is not to say that there can't be ways of finding funding for -- whether it's training, labour market supports, you know, other ways by which the industry might benefit. There certainly is an interest in Indigenous tourism. There is an interest in looking at more rural opportunities for tourism products in terms of, again, the kind of experiences that tourists seem to be looking for. So hopefully we can see ourselves reflected in that and reflected in that in a northern way and not only in a way that is dictated from elsewhere. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And that plays really nicely into my next area of conversation around different forms of tourism. I recently had the opportunity to attend the Grow NWT conference, which was the agricultural conference that was hosted by the territorial agri association last week. It was fantastic. And through that there was a lot more conversation around ecotourism, agri-tourism. You know, I think there's a real opportunity for -- that southerners would find it quite interesting to see how does the North feed itself and when we do get to a stage where we have innovative greenhouses and such, which we do. I mean, the Inuvik greenhouse is pretty fantastic.

So can the Minister speak a bit to whether there is opportunities for tourism in that area and anything that might be coming down the line there. And the reason I bring it up is that it seems like there might be more money for agricultural investment at this point from the federal government versus tourism. So is there a way that we can be creative to lobby or leverage that agricultural money into a tourism sector as well? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, look, I can convey just briefly a conversation I had actually with the executive director at that same conference which is -- which some of the products that they are putting out and looking at the entire food value chain from growing to production. You know, I actually asked, why are we not having more foodie tours? I had much the same reaction to be quite honest, given the wealth and the variety of things available in the North, a lot of them very unique and gourmet forging. So I completely agree. NWT Tourism was represented at the agri-grow conference that took place last week. And I would just note there are some initiatives that are starting up in terms of the partnering between the agriculture association, NWT Tourism. There's a company out in Vancouver, sun -- you know what, let me get the deputy minister to speak to that briefly because she will have it right.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister Strand.