Thank you, colleagues, and Madam Speaker. The language is a combination of french and native languages with its own particular form and structure, eventually becoming a language of its own, usually passed along from father to son, mother to daughter and spoken mainly in the home. It was often mistakenly referred to as broken French or broken English and often made fun of.
Madam Speaker, this weekend's conference was the second one of its kind in three years and the first one in the NWT, as I understand it. It brought together elders who still remember speaking the dialect in their families, and many still do. Among the many items discussed was the origin, the evolution and the decline in use as well as the efforts by some Metis to preserve and perhaps revive this language, much like the Acadians on the east coast and the Cajuns in Louisiana in the United States.
Madam Speaker, to conclude, I enjoyed the conference and look forward to the next one. I felt comfortable talking my own version of French in company who understood. We had some fun, like Metis people usually do when we get together. I'm not sure whether Michif will ever become an official language in this Assembly but in the rich cultural background of Metis people of the west, it was and may still be an important part of our heritage. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
---Applause