Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Justice had a legal interpreters program back in 1988. I understand this responsibility was transferred to Arctic College back in 1995.
When the department had it, they were funded by the Aboriginal Language Funding Agreement with the federal government. There were 248 individuals registered in the program and 52 were certified prior to 1995.
Since the responsibility went over to Arctic College, it was up to the different individuals to apply and get accepted to the Arctic College program. That is where it is at right now. We had some difficulty in trying to track down individual interpreters, since 1998 contractors were hired to survey known interpreters and availability and their training needs.
We created an interpreter database in the summer of 1999. A Northern contracting interpreting firm called The Aboriginal Language Services was contracted to co-ordinate and provide interpreting services to the courts. This is an as and when needed contract with this company.
Interpreters were sometimes hired directly by court staff. What most often occurs is that once the matters are scheduled out of the regional courthouses and matters that are heard before the Justices of the Peace, the interpreters are hired.
Generally, the Aboriginal Language Services here in Yellowknife provides that service. It seems to have worked up to this point in time. The current contract with this company expires at the end of March. There is a request for proposal that is outstanding right now as well, to try and see who is out there that could provide this service.