Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I, for one, being a member of the committee and also being a member of the previous committee back in
the 14th Assembly, feel quite strongly or hopeful
that this time that the recommendations that are being put forward will be acted upon by this government in the term of this government. Because what I saw from the previous recommendations -- we had some 60 recommendations in the 14th Assembly in regard to
a special committee on languages which was one of the responsibilities we had to look at what has happened to those recommendations and, more importantly, what has the government done to ensure that those recommendations were considered and yet were acted upon. I was very dismayed to realize that a lot of time and effort was put into this by not only the members of the committee back in the 14th Assembly, a lot of
residents of the Northwest Territories, aboriginal groups, language groups, took part and were very serious in regard to the situation we find ourselves in regard to aboriginal languages, government programs and services.
Since then, nothing has really happened by way of changing or improving the services for languages and, if anything, we ended up in court because of this issue in regard to the francophones of the Northwest Territories. If anything, the legislation we do put forth, the recommendations should be seriously considered and acted upon.
Now, since the 14th Assembly, we are now in a
position of finding our languages worse off now than we were prior to the 14th Assembly in which
some of the aboriginal languages and the language group I represent in regards to the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit, their languages are being threatened by the number of speakers or the major decline in speakers in those two cultural groups. We now are in a position of having to find ways to get these languages back to some sort of safe state of affairs and realizing that they are now in danger.
I think that we, as government and as legislators, have to do everything that we can to ensure that when recommendations are made by way of special committees or in this Legislative Assembly, that we do take them seriously and that we do act in the best interests of all Northerners and, more importantly, to preserve something that makes us unique in the Northwest Territories, which is basically the languages that we have, the special unique cultural significance of these languages, the people, the aboriginal groups and also ensuring that the cultural component of languages are protected. Without the language, you don’t have a culture. Without culture, you don’t have the history and the background that you need to ensure that the history of the Northwest Territories is preserved and protected.
Again, I would just like to state as a Member that has served on this committee and served on the previous committee that after the frustration that I
felt and the reason I put my name forward for this committee was to be on the Government Operations committee was to deal with this legislation and review this legislation. After seeing the amount of effort and time that we put into the recommendations in the 14th Assembly and it not
be acted upon and finding out the state of affairs that we are in today, it is because of a lot of that. Again, I would like to seriously ask the Cabinet, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to take these recommendations seriously and take the language revitalization and aspects of this bill and how we are trying to find unique ways of restoring, maintaining and, more importantly, preserving our languages and our culture in the Northwest Territories for future generations. With that, thank you, Mr. Chairman.