Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to add my voice of appreciation to the comments that have

already been made. There is not much new I would add, but I want to put my own stamp on my thoughts regarding this work. I certainly am appreciative of the work of the committee. This is a very comprehensive and in-depth report. They did a great deal of work to get the report to this stage and I think the committee members and the staff that worked with the committee members to produce this document are to be commended.

The preservation of language, no matter which language, is extremely important and is something we have recognized, I think, in some of our goals and objectives and through our strategic planning documents. But at the moment, you know, the analysis that the committee did and the results that they have produced in this document pretty much indicate that we are not doing what we should be doing to preserve our language. Many of the general principles that come out in this document mirror my own thoughts. I felt for some time that if we really believe in the preservation of our 11 official languages, we ought to be doing more than what we have been doing.

I see that there is -- and these are mirroring some of the comments in the report -- a distinct lack of an organized approach to the preservation of our languages. Adequate dollars have not been diverted, directed towards the delivery of our language programs, towards the management and accountability of our programs and to the promotion of our languages and to research and development to preserve our languages. So all those areas I don’t think we’ve devoted enough resources to and it’s evident in the fact that language, use of aboriginal languages and all our languages, aboriginal languages particularly, is declining.

The report points out some of the faults or the lack of authority of the Commissioner and it goes to, again, the inability of preservation of languages and use of languages. I feel that there is a lack of support, currently, through policy in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and a lack of support for HR capacity relative to languages.

I thoroughly approve of the proposed reorganization of structure as it’s laid out in the report. I think if it’s a priority for this Assembly to preserve languages to make sure that our aboriginal languages are going to continue, then we have to take action. We have it as one of our priorities, but I really again have to state that I don’t think we are putting enough resources towards that particular priority. I hope, as my colleague Mr. Bromley mentioned a few moments ago, that our business plans are going to reflect the necessary direction of funds towards languages and working towards increasing the language education in schools, outside of schools, promotion, all those things that need to be done.

I want to see that the business plans show a change of direction from the current and an increased focus on language. You know the expression “we have to put our money where our mouth is,” I think that’s something we need to think seriously about as we go forward with looking at business plans and setting priorities for the next budget. If language really is important, then we need to devote the resources to it.

I hope, as other Members have stated, that this report is...I hope we act on it. I hope it’s not a report which we simply take, say nice things about it and then basically don’t do the actions. It’s really important that we carry through on this. I agree with Mr. Bromley again when he says that it’s going to take time. It’s going to take a long time, but we can do one thing at a time, one foot in front of the other and we will get to the point where our preservation of language will be better than it is today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.