(Translation) I will be speaking in my own language, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
---Laughter
Yesterday during question period, I asked about firearms issues and the pending mandatory course. I want to talk a little about that again because I seemed to understand yesterday that the instructions for mandatory courses will not be made up in the aboriginal languages. That was the understanding I had yesterday, Mr. Chairman.
There are many official aboriginal languages and there is also the Federal Official Languages Act. In the territories, we have eight official aboriginal languages, and I wanted to talk a little bit more about that. I want to remind the Minister about our Official Languages Act. I understand he will be meeting fairly soon again with the Minister to talk about this issue. I have a concern that the teaching materials will not be provided in the aboriginal languages and this could pose an enormous problem, especially in light of the fact that the majority of the people up here are unilingual.
Whenever they propose national laws, it should be remembered that funding should also be considered to ensure that enforcement of these laws is being provided in languages that are understood up here. This firearms legislation will surely pose a problem. This is not going to be a simple task, as we are all aware, especially if they start implementing the training courses. Firearms safety has been an issue for a long time but this is something I'm very concerned about. People will continue to hunt and people will continue to be concerned about safety with rifles.
I don't believe there is going to be funding set aside to provide these courses in the aboriginal languages, even if it is a national law and it is mandatory. I don't think the course is going to be translated into Inuktitut. This is more a comment than a question. As I understand it, the Minister will be having meetings again concerning this issue in the near future. I hope he will reiterate this problem and the difficulties that are encountered, not just in enforcing this new law, but also whenever they make new mandatory legislation it must be remembered that official languages are important to us up here. I wanted the Minister to know about my concerns regarding the training courses, which possibly might not be provided in the aboriginal languages.