Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some problems with the motion. I remember back to Norman Wells. At that time, Mr. Zoe demanded to have Dogrib interpretation, we didn't have it, and we shut down the House. That precipitated quite a heated debate on how we were going to proceed, how we were going to proceed with French and how we were going to proceed with the aboriginal languages. Out of that, there was a committee formed which I was a Member of. We met with many, many groups across the territories and, at the end of the day, there was quite a bit of support for the symbolic use of all the official languages in the Legislative Assembly.

One thing that many of us -- I think everybody in this room, at one time or another -- whether here or in southern Canada, have probably spoken about is that our Assembly has simultaneous translation in all of the official languages. That is very important. There are those who say that money can be spent elsewhere and there are very good arguments about how the money can be spent. But one of the very significant ways we protect the official languages is through the use of them in the House of Assembly.

I think it is something that has been commented on by commentators, politicians, and observers across the country and around the world, that we have more official languages here than they do in the United Nations. I think it's something everyone here can be proud of. Though I understand what Mr. Patterson is trying to achieve, I can't support the motion. I just want to make it very clear that I stand by the original decision that every official language will be represented in this Legislative Assembly. Thank you, very much.

---Applause