Mr. Chair, certainly, as the Member alluded to, that’s one prime area of interest for our department moving forward in the next three years, three and a half years.
As we indicated earlier, the languages in this area were sunsetted. We committed a million dollars to that. Also, the Member indicated the Tlicho area and the Gwich’in. We are slowly losing our languages, so we are stressing that, and part of that means investing some more dollars into sponsoring the ALCIC program, the aboriginal language and instructor program, and also the TEP program, which will be delivered in all regions. The hope is that we are going to recruit those teachers that do speak the language and certify them to become teachers and teach in their own schools, speaking their own languages. As part of the curriculum development, I understand the Gwich’in area and the Sahtu have started that in their schools, and we certainly want to see that in other schools as well.
What I can say here is that one of our main focuses as a department is the language development. That has been directed to us by the Dene Nation Assembly a couple of months ago. We are going over the recommendations that were brought forward, specifically pertaining to our department, and one of them is language and also the youth conference, specifically dealing with the language laws and so forth.
Certainly, that’s one of the areas that my department will move forward on and improve in that area. Mahsi.