That would definitely be one way of doing it. Thus far different health authorities have been putting out their own RFPs. There is more than one business, I believe, in the Territories

who does that. What we would be looking at would be doing an RFP for larger and more than one authority at once. It’s a detail that we need to work out, but it’s something that needs a lot more attention and a lot more detailed analysis and I will undertake to do that.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to talk today about A Shared Responsibility that’s going to be tabled later today. Once again, I think it’s a great step forward. I’m curious, though, has the department, has the Minister developed a comprehensive evaluation framework so that we can actually assess over time whether or not -- the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, yes -- it’s actually working. Has an evaluation framework been developed to go along with this plan?

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. An evaluation form will come out of this framework that’s going to be before us. We seriously want to monitor each and every recommendation that is brought forward and the program changes that we will be making within our Department of Education. So it’s all preliminary right now, the recommendations that are before us today. Definitely evaluations will be part of the process.

That’s good to hear. We’ve been here before. We’ve had plans to revitalize aboriginal languages in the North before and I think this is a very good one. It’s building upon some of the successes we’ve had in the past.

Over the last 10 years the number of aboriginal people that identify their aboriginal language as their mother tongue has decreased as has the number of people using it in their homes. What I’m curious about, specifically when it comes to an evaluation framework, is will the department be collecting information on mother tongue and home language as well as the ability to diverse so that we can actually calculate language shift in the Northwest Territories to see that we are getting results. If there’s no mechanism to track whether the mother tongue numbers are going up and the home language numbers are going up, we won’t be able to determine whether in fact what we’ve done is working. Will that type of information be collected as we move forward with this plan?

I agree with the Member that we need to have a mechanism in place for the tracking and monitoring and evaluating of our programming. We want this strategy, the plan, to be successful. I believe the Member did indicate that this will be part of the legacy that we’ll leave behind for years to come. Revitalizing our languages, there will definitely be a mechanism in place to monitor it every step of the way.

Once again thanks to the Minister. It sounds like we’re agreeing. I would like the Minister to commit to actually putting in some system to track the aboriginal language shift over time, which means collecting things like the number of individuals who identify their aboriginal languages as their mother tongue and those that also indicate they’re using it as their home language. I think tracking the language shift every two or three years could actually be an important indicator to evaluate if the revitalization measures put in place are successful. I think we both want the same thing. I think everybody wants the same thing. We want these aboriginal languages to be healthy and strong. If I can get him to commit to tracking that specific type of information, I really feel that those indicators will help us to determine success in the long run.

The aboriginal languages will likely see some shift, because we want this to work. At the same time, we need to gather the information. We have done that along with the package that we have before us. Mr. Krutko did mention numbers as well that are out there that we have used so far. We will be monitoring that and collecting more data over the next two or three years. We need the committees, the language specialists, committee experts, the community members to provide that information as well. We will be working closely with the community. My department will be working with the Members as well as the communities very closely, a monitoring mechanism.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s the very reason why we’re here today producing this package. It has over 70 recommendations. We have done some work with respect to preserving our language and revitalizing our language. We have programs that have been implemented, the ALCIP program. I think we need to do more. Part of the documentation that is going to be provided speaks to immersion programming, elders in schools, specialists in schools on our language, teachers that speak the language. We need to produce those important people, the resources. We have done some work in that area but we’ll continue to do more, especially with a plan that will be before us for the next few years. Definitely we want to make it a successful project.

I believe it is critical that we do have some sort of central language development institute of some sort in the Northwest Territories. When you talk about aboriginal language it’s more than a language learning program, it’s also looking at the whole area of translating services, training services for language teachers and instructors in those language programs. I think it’s essential that whatever programs and services we do deliver are useable. That is one of the downfalls that you see of a lot of languages. You can see the strong language groups in the Northwest Territories such as the Tlicho or the Slavey in the different regions. It is because they use their language on a day-to-day basis. That is one of the critical downfalls of the languages, pressures that a lot of these language groups are under. I’d like to ask the Minister what we are doing to revitalize the language groups and impress on the importance of using those languages.

I’d like to focus on what we are going to be doing with the new package. We had the Language Institute here this past summer. That’s part of the strategy that’s been highlighted, that we need to deliver more language programming into the region and the communities to the people. That’s what we’re doing. Not only that, but it also captures Dene fonts onto our computers throughout the system, integrated language curriculum and immersion programming. Those are the key factors that are within the package.

I think, as we move forward, most of the concerns and discussions that were brought forward over the years by Assembly Members will be captured in this document and utilize community expertise such as elders and language specialists. We need their

guidance and support. We also need the support of the Regular Members to make it a very successful project. We’ll continue to do so.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I spoke about how I look forward to the Aboriginal Languages Plan. However, I also mentioned that immersion programs lead to success in many languages. Not only aboriginal languages but throughout other jurisdictions immersion programs really work and they tend to support the local languages. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment how many aboriginal immersion programs we have in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the exact number before me, but within the region I believe we offer… Within the three regions, but I have to get the facts for the Member, because I need to highlight the correct information that I can provide to the Member.

The vision that I shared earlier was that I’d like to see our aboriginal communities, of course, begin immersion programs. Even in our smallest communities it would be ideal, and a lot of our smaller communities, the majority are speaking an aboriginal language, like the community of Trout Lake. I don’t want to anticipate the Aboriginal Languages Plan, Mr. Speaker, but I’d like to ask the Minister, is there a current strategy to look at starting up immersion programs throughout our jurisdiction? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think we need to focus on what we have before us today. It is part of the package and we are going to start implementing that. The language immersion in all schools, that is also our vision, starting from early childhood. Not only that, but we’ve heard over and over, even in the Sahtu region, the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, that there was a language that was spoken that we need to start from home. Parents need to talk to their kids at home. The teachers are there as a resource tool, but at the same time some teachers don’t speak the language. So it has to come from home. We are trying to produce more aboriginal speaking teachers, as well, with the credentials. There are some immersion programs in the regions, but we want to do more. This package will allow us to do that and work with the communities as well. Mr.

Speaker, this package has fingerprints of all the Northwest Territories and it is a package of the Northwest Territories and we want to make it a successful project. Mahsi.

When I speak about immersion programs is where we’ll actually be teaching the children from K to 3 in an aboriginal language. Do we have a current program such like that in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Yes, we do. We provide immersion programs in some of the regions, probably not all regions as we wish that we could do, but we are working towards that. We’ve been given the direction, the guidance and also the support to deliver that. At the kindergarten level, or even earlier than that, the Head Start Program has been successful as well. Those are the discussions that we’ve had throughout the Northwest Territories and now we need to start implementing the total package that will be before us. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.