Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Allooloo on June 13th regarding consultation for development of the official languages handbook. Mr. Allooloo asked if the Premier would be able to provide the Legislative Assembly the list of aboriginal groups who had general discussions with the officials of the department. During the fall and winter, the assistant deputy minister of official languages met or had phone conversations with the following:
- representatives from the Dene Cultural Institute;
- representatives from the Inuit Cultural Institute;
- representatives from the Baffin Regional Inuit Association;
- Languages Commissioner;
- representatives from the Federation Franco-TéNOise;
- representatives from the Nunavut Implementation Committee;
- representatives from the Hay River Treatment Centre;
- representatives from the Hay River Friendship Centre; and,
- representatives from the Fort Smith Friendship Centre
The purpose of those consultations was to ascertain the areas where the GNWT should focus its language resources on. The community representatives consulted stressed that funding should be directed at community-based initiatives for enhancement, maintenance and revitalization of languages. These comments played an important role in the development of official languages guidelines.