N.W.T. Arts Council to get extra $200K added to its budget

The Northwest Territories is set to increase its funding for artists in the territory, with an extra $200,000 set to be added to the N.W.T. Arts Council budget.

Finance Minister Robert C. McLeod announced the extra money at a committee of the whole meeting on Feb. 20, in response to the number of people who wanted the territory to spend more on arts.

The budget for the NWT Arts Council is set to increase to $700,000, up from the $500,000 that had originally been set aside. The council awards money to artists working in the Northwest Territories.

The issue came up during committee hearings on the Western Canadian Lottery Act in February.

People had wanted arts programs to be considered as part of "recreation" organizations that could receive money the government took in through lotteries.

That didn't happen, but the committee responsible for reviewing the bill requested the government find more for the arts somewhere else.

"It's an excellent increase," said Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart. "It's the first step in what is needed. The arts have been chronically underfunded."

The government should increase the Arts Council's budget again so it reaches$1 million, he said.

"It would have been nice to see the fund double," he said. "Our [arts] community is strong and growing every day and the more we allocate to them, the more they're going to make use of those funds."

Testart chairs the standing committee on government operations, which reviewed the lottery act and recommended changes to the act.

Other changes include the requirement that the government report how much each sport organization gets from the lottery, and removing multi-sport games from the pool of eligible candidates for lottery money.