Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Member for his continued advocacy on this topic. I agree that people need to be able to access the government, and they should be able to access it in their own language. The Member is correct that we do have an action plan, and it has some items related to this.
In a broad sense, there are a number of initiatives that the government is undertaking. There is a mentor-apprentice program whereby fluent speakers, such as the Member, would apprentice a younger -- it doesn't have to be younger, necessarily, but someone who doesn't speak the language. There is funding provided for this, and this is a way to help a new generation of speakers gain those skills.
We are working on developing a two-year diploma program in conjunction with the University of Victoria, which has a lot of experience in this, and that would be an adult immersion program to get speakers to the point where they could become interpreters. The long-term goal is to have that program be the predecessor of, perhaps, a third-year interpreter-translator program. It is on the horizon.
In terms of some of the other goals or projects happening, this March, actually, the department is putting together a virtual gathering of the 30-plus translators and interpreters that are currently in the territory. This is to identify specific needs for ongoing professional development so that we can better support those who are translating now, even if they don't have the professional certifications, and to get input into ways that we can attract new interpreter-translators and expand the field.
Those are some of the things that are happening. I have to commend the Member that it was his very friendly badgering that I think moved some of these things forward. This is an example of Members of this House working together to move things forward and make progress. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.