Mahsi cho, Mr. Chair. Although I know we don’t have interpreters anymore, I just want to speak a bit in my language to the elders. [English translation not provided.]

I just wanted to stress a point of how important it is even today as more and more people speak English and communicate in English, and English is a working language for us, we still need to work in our own languages as well. We still need to have representation in the House here that represents people of all Aboriginal languages across this great territory of ours.

We know that some of the languages have almost died because people have not taken language and cultural things seriously. We talked a lot about things like addictions, social issues and things like that. The elders always tell us it’s because we need to go back to the land, we need to get in touch with our culture and we need to talk our language. When you sit down and you can talk to somebody in their language and they have a good understanding of it, it’s the best way for individuals, elders and everybody, to express how they feel towards their people. That’s what is needed. That’s not considered in here. Even if we put it down here saying language and culture will be considered, it wasn’t. It is, actually, with 21 seats, but with 19 seats and with 18 seats it was not considered. It couldn’t possibly be considered because if it was considered, they would never put a recommendation forward that says the elimination of one language in this House. The elimination of one Aboriginal language in the House would not have been considered. So this is what 18 seats did. It puts Tu Nedhe and Deh Cho together, so that would have eliminated the Chipewyan language. I have no doubt about it. Mr. Nadli is a good representative for a lot of people in the Deh Cho and that’s where the Member would arise from. It’s essentially the same thing even if it goes the other way. It’s still one language and it would not be spoken in the House. It disrespects the traditional lines of people. It disrespects the traditional boundaries that the people set up.

People live where they live because that’s where they’re from and that’s the language that they speak and that has to be respected. This report does not respect that except for in where there are 21 seats.

I did talk to the people that put this report together and that was their response. Yes, we did consider

it, but that was in the 21 seats. If 21 seats is what this Legislative Assembly picks, then we will have respected the culture and language and the culture and languages or official languages and the diverse cultures that we have across the territory. I’m seeing that, eventually, if we go with 21 seats, as the MLA for Sahtu had indicated, there could be growth in the Sahtu and that would be appropriate, and there could possibly be a seat that’s dominated by Weledeh, by the YK Dene. Right now the YK Dene, their band is I think around 1,100 to 1,200 people, but because of the land and the housing they have, they have about 650 people in their riding in those two communities. But at some point, as the people get repatriated back into those communities, they should have their own seat. They would have enough members to have their own seat. This 19 will eliminate that possibility. It would take them and put them in a riding outside of Yellowknife. From a riding where they’re from, where they’re original people here, it would take them and join them with a riding from out there to another riding. Both groups of people – both groups – don’t want that. The people of Weledeh and YK Dene are happy to be represented here in the capital where they’re from and the people of Tu Nedhe are happy with their representative that is from their culture and their language. Thank you, Madam Chair.