Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE.
Mr. Speaker, government bodies and agencies considered to be under the remit of the Archives Act are identified in related regulations. Can the Minister tell me if there are any punitive measures under consideration when those government bodies and agencies do not provide records within 30 years of creation as required currently by Section 5(1) of the Archives Act? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for homework to review the Archives Act, and luckily it is a few pages long. It's not like some of our other legislation of the territory.
So Section 10 of the Act details the punitive measures that can be pursued should records be unlawfully damaged, mutilated, or withheld, and these measures include summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both. I will say, though, Mr. Speaker, from education, culture and employment, we, of course, choose education first, and so our goal is to educate and promote the preservation and transfer of records and so we have not pursued punitive measures under Section 10 of the Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me if any electronic records created and filed in the GNWT's Digital Integrated Information Management System, otherwise known as DIIMS, have been transferred to the custody of the NWT Archives since DIIMS was implemented? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, as a whole of government, we have some homework to do in this case. So when DIIMS was created, it did not include the creation of a mechanism to transfer files from DIIMS to the NWT Archives for review and then permanent preservation. Luckily, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working quite closely with the Department of Finance on this to ensure it is addressed, and they are working currently on a business case for a digital record connector. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me whether the NWT Archives will, as final repository for any digital records required in the future, be solely responsible for paying for storage of those records in perpetuity? Thank you. Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was recently at a conference where somebody said data is the new oil. So data does not come cheap, Mr. Speaker, and I can confirm for the Member there will certainly be a cost to this, but this cost would not be only worn by education, culture and employment as this would be an all-of-government responsibility. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
