Thanks, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to congratulate the Commissioner on having spoken Inuktitut fluently, and impressed the interpreters by going at a speed that they could handle very well. But on the other hand, I should also tell her -- and she picked it up very quickly -- that when you use unusual expressions like Pandora's box you have to very quickly correct yourself because that's not something that's very easy to translate or interpret.
My comments are about the problem of independence and accountability. The boss for the Languages Commissioner is the act. That is the authority, the act. For us as legislators, if there are problems with the act, then we have to fix it. If the act isn't clear enough, then that's our job to make sure it is clear enough so it isn't open to so many interpretations that it poses difficulty for the person who has to uphold it.
But I can see the problem, also, of an individual...Really, it's a lonely kind of life. You're on your own and you don't know where you belong. Everybody likes the idea of being sovereign and independent until they taste it. You realize then that you don't have that many points of reference. But what you bring to us is what you have had given to you, Mr.
Chairman, as a Commissioner, from the public, and the biggest problem is the disposition of that. When you have all this stuff, all these issues that have to be resolved, what happens to it? It seems to me -- and I agree that in this kind of forum it's very, very difficult to sort through all the details so that you can give clear direction for the Assembly and for the government as to how we should proceed with a lot of these items and issues.
One of the attractive features, of course, of our kind of parliamentary system is that we do have committees. These committees perform the function of being a kind of sounding board or a screen, if you like, in order to guide what we do. You're not going to just simply take a report and say, okay, we're going to do all this. There has to be some process for sorting it out, setting priorities and so on. There are several committees that we have, so I really don't feel too happy about creating one more standing committee.
Lonely though the Commissioner may be, we don't have to create more interested people in the work that the Commissioner is doing, Mr. Chairman. I would hope we would find some method by which this report -- which has a lot of very important information in it -- can be referred to a committee that has a mandate to look at these kinds of issues, and to refine it so that the government has a sense of priority and a sense of urgency about some issues, because you can't be everything to all people. You have to decide where you're going to put your efforts so that you handle the vast majority of things within a reasonable time frame and at a reasonable cost.
I do take seriously, though, the main observation that other Members have made about a broad interpretation of...Maybe there is no other approach to take at the beginning. You could have taken a narrow one, I suppose, Mr. Chairman, as a Commissioner and just say I'm going to begin small and gradually do more things. But then, of course, when you do that, immediately you are open to the criticism, you are ignoring this, you are ignoring that, so you can't win in a sense. By taking the position that you have a broad mandate under this act, and doing the best you can with the resources that you have, then perhaps as a result of meetings like this and maybe with refinements to the act or with work from our standing committees, then we would be able to refine, focus and get the office doing the work in as efficient a manner as possible dealing with the issues that are uppermost and that need most urgently to be dealt with.
I have been interested in languages nearly all my life. I fully understand the very difficult job that the Languages Commissioner has to do. It is a complex issue and is not very easy to satisfy everyone even though you try. Now that we have had a sense from this Assembly that, perhaps, we are being too broad, then obviously the Languages Commissioner has some kind of direction, even at this stage, because this is an accountability session too. Perhaps it is time to narrow it in a little bit and see what things are reasonable to accomplish within the mandate of that office.
The first year or two, obviously, you are going to find that many issues are raised. As the Languages Commissioner said, Mr. Chairman, it is a question of sorting through the mess, understanding the job and getting the public to understand what the Languages Commissioner's job is. I expect it to be confusing. Anything you take on that is new in the jurisdiction like ours with this many official languages is a huge job. It is a mighty challenge. So, I think we should have some patience that you are not going to be able to get it all right, right away. There will be a process by which we can improve. My guess is that process will belong with one of our standing committees and then the Languages Commissioner won't be so lonely, Mr. Chairman. The person will have a chance to spend more time with people who will spend the time needed to look at her work, her report and her problems. Thank you very much.