Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I want to indicate to the honourable Member is what I said before; the work that was being done primarily by these individuals was a matter of terminology development. We have other terminologists who were in the government and we needed to put together a group who dealt with terminology. I did not indicate that these individuals did not interpret, I said their prime responsibility was terminology development. We had a number of other departments involved and we needed to coordinate our approach to terminology development. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister also stated, at that time, that the development of legal and medical terminology for Dene languages and in Cree would go back to the language bureau in an effort to consolidate these activities under one department. The Minister must be aware that the language bureau has received a $294,000 cut in funding under the Canada/NWT language agreement in 1995-96, more than a 50 per cent reduction in their funding under vote 4; and that other departments, boards and agencies of the GNWT, as well as other groups, have expressed concern that they cannot obtain services from the language bureau because the interpreters and translators are usually busy with other assignments. The Minister must also be aware that the Task Force on Aboriginal Languages in 1985 recommended that specialized medical and legal interpreter/translator training be developed because the language bureau had not been able to devote adequate time to training and terminology development in these specialized areas. I would like to ask the Minister were the language bureau's Dene interpreter/translators consulted on whether or not they would be able to handle these additional duties which originally rested with them, but which were transferred to the departments of Justice and Health after the task force made its recommendation? Thank you.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just for the information of the Member again, there are departments in which terminologists are located. There has been no indication on my part or the government's to remove the development of terminology for aboriginal languages. The suggestion being made is that, somehow, the responsibility is going to rest with the existing interpreter/translators. But there has to be a working relationship developed between the terminologists and the interpreter/translators. If there is no relationship between the people involved in translating in the communities and another group is developing terminology of which they have no knowledge, then what is the purpose of developing new terminology? It is clear that needs to be done, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. I have a question, again, for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The question is, who will be responsible for the legal and medical terminology development in Cree, since the Language Bureau does not employ any Cree interpreter/translators? Thank you.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you. It's a new question, but nonetheless, I would like to indicate to the honourable Member that if there's a requirement for an individual, we will address that matter when the request is made.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Supplementary, Mr. Speaker, on the same issue of language transfer. I would like to ask the Minister, why wasn't the responsibility for Inuktitut legal and medical terminology development also transferred back to the Language Bureau if the aim was to consolidate these activities? Thank you.

Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the honourable Member for the advice. We'll take the suggestion and consider transferring the responsibility. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Pudlat.