Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome to this Assembly a group of adult students and their instructors from the Goyatiko Language Centre in Dettah. These women are currently taking interpreter/translator training at Goyatiko.

The Goyatiko Language Society is a non-profit society established by a number of Yellowknives Dene who are working very hard to save their traditional languages, the Weledeh dialect of the Tlicho language and the Dene Suline or Chipewyan language. The students with us today are taking interpreter/translator training so that they will be able to assist in delivering services for their own First Nations and for institutions such as this Assembly, the hospitals, court and various boards and agencies. These students are also taking courses for Aurora College’s Aboriginal Language and Culture Instructor Program at Goyatiko.

Mr. Speaker, ALCIP, as it’s known, training will give these students an Aurora College certificate or diploma. However, the Aurora College has cut the Interpreter/Translator Diploma Program, so these students are taking this particular training even though they will not receive a college diploma for it.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT has made a real commitment to aboriginal language education in our schools through effective programs such as Language Nests. As languages are recovered, we will increasingly need certified, well-trained interpreters. Thus we need to re-establish the Interpreter/Translator Diploma Program at Aurora College at appropriate locations for good enrolment. The commitment of the students with us today to take the program, despite not receiving a diploma, highlights the need to re-establish this program as soon as possible. In light of our current review of the Official Languages Act, I suggest that Members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations might want to talk to these students to see how important this training is to the preservation, development and enhancement of our endangered aboriginal languages here in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, please join me in welcoming this dedicated group of people to our Assembly today. We have Mary Rose Sundberg and Betty Harnum, and students Jeannie Martin, Stella Martin, Margaret Martin-Baillargeon, Nora Crookedhand, Irene Soldat, and Alice Wilflad.