Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Increasing that support is largely linked to the work that is occurring on the NWT Arts Strategy, which I recognize is a joint venture by ITI and ECE. Perhaps the Minister could update me if any progress has been made on increasing support for film and specifically a model that is more of a film producers' incentive program. The way the film industry works is it's very similar to the mining industry. One in a thousand projects go forward, but, when they do, they are very significant. We have the possibility of pulling multimillion-dollar movie productions to the North...

All right. I will try and sneak one more in. I know that the Minister is a huge fan of the Geoscience Forum. We have been doing that for 47 years, I believe. I think there is a lot of potential in bringing people to the North for trading convention, tourism. I know even the Dene Nation was looking at getting a huge conference with the First Nations Assembly, which would mean hundreds or thousands of chiefs coming here. I am not quite sure we have the tourism infrastructure to hold those large conferences, but I really do think that, looking at the Geoscience Forum, there is a huge market to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would appreciate it if the Minister could work with the new CEO and really give the BDIC a mandate for change. There is a large surplus in there. I recognize part of that is legislated and they have to have it, but, at the end of the day, I really think that in letting the BDIC be a little more arms-length has a lot of exciting venture capital possibilities. There are all sorts of private equity firms looking to invest and looking to find interesting projects.

Moving on, I would like to speak to the $450,000 for our commercial fisheries. Could the Minister provide me a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As you said, only two in Canada have this thing. Most jurisdictions, you have to get your municipal business licence and you go out and run a business. I guess I have no issue with the actual licence. I have the issue with the fact that we are imposing extra costs on small business operators. I think that the duty-to-consult aspect is great. Having a clear record of all our operators is great, and this is a process to do that, but we've essentially put an extra cost for it on small business operators. At some point, any smart business that runs into a requirement to get...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping the Minister could provide me with any attempts to hire BDIC a CEO and whether we're using a headhunting firm to obtain that position. Considering we have about half a million dollars of taxpayer money, I think it's one of the most important positions in the public service. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm going to share a bit of a personal anecdote, here. Last summer, I ran a sailing tour business just kind of on the side, and I did a few thousand dollars in tourism. It was nothing, but I had to pay $500 to get a licence, and then I had to pay about $2,000 to get insurance. Anyone who just wants to start an on-the-side tourism business, really, it doesn't make sense. You either go all in or all out. I think right now our regulations are killing that kind of small tourism operator. For example, right now, if you wanted to start a walking tour in Yellowknife...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I would like to start on the general, and if the Minister could provide an update in regards to the new Mineral Resources Act, and when we can expect that to come into force and a timeline given COVID, whether any of the timelines in the mandate have changed in regards to the regulations under that? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I want to start a little more high level. We're looking at $16 million for tourism and parks. In the wake of COVID, we're not going to see the same industry at all that we've seen in this fiscal year. Can the Minister speak to: are we going to spend all this money? A lot of these programs just simply don't work in the current reality, and I very much think we need to see an increase in this section, but it needs to be framed as a tourism bail-out. I think a lot of the current programs are designed for a world that is not the current one. If the Minister could...

My concern here is that, every time a language speaker passes, if they are not passing on that language, then we are losing this battle. I know there is work being done. I know ECE is trying, but I think absent having the number of speakers we are losing and the number of speakers we are gaining in the yearly data, then I don't believe we actually have a fair picture of what is occurring. Will the Minister commit to getting data that shows the amount of speakers we are losing and the amount of new fluent speakers we are creating each year?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I get there is a bit of a politicization of oil and gas. My concern is that the strategy is based on one market reality that has significantly changed. Perhaps I will try again. Can I get a sense of whether we have specific positions and how many work on petroleum versus minerals? Thank you, Madam Chair.