Thank you. We can provide that, as well.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

In the Indigenous language adult immersion in your opening statements with regard to $600,000 to develop the Indigenous language adult immersion diploma, it's very vague as to how that is going to be. I just want to know exactly more detail on that, if that is possible, because we are talking about Indigenous languages here. I would like the Minister to answer that question, please.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. I can ask the deputy minister to expand on where all the money is found throughout here, and then we can get into the details of the program if the Member likes. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Thebacha.

I have no further questions.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. Just looking, I wanted to speak to the Indigenous languages portion of this, of these line items. I cannot thank enough for the work that our interpreters and translators do here. It's really, really important work. It's not just here in the Legislative Assembly. There will be times that our residents are going to need services in the courts. It could be during public meetings and other areas that their services are needed. My first question is about this revitalization, and I just want to see where the Indigenous languages line item and the revitalization ends and how those parameters work because I am thinking along the lines of, yes, it's important once you start translating in public meetings, it's important to always keep that ongoing training because the languages are always changing. There is new terminology, like in science, law, legislation, and I have been approached by our language speakers, saying, "We need more workshops just to keep things updated, keep it always fresh, and meet with other translators to keep the language alive." It's so important. My question to the Minister is: what type of workshops? Is that included in here? Are there any plans to get that program going? Marsi cho.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. There is a plan to bring all of the translators together in March. I think there are around 30 or so interpreter-translators in the territory whom the Legislative Assembly and Indigenous governments regularly use. We want to bring them together so we can start that work and find out, "Okay. What is it that you need? Is it technical training on new vocabulary that does not exist in the languages? How can we get more people involved? Do you know of anyone whom we could help ease into this profession?" I spoke with the staff here at the Legislative Assembly, as well, and said that we have a great resource here. We sit I do not know how many weeks a year, a million, and every time we sit, we have Indigenous translators. Is there a way that we can better work together to help train new entrants into the program or help maybe get people interested in translating? There is a lot of work going on in that sense, and that has really been spurred on by this House. There has been a lot of interest by the Members here who have really been pushing us to do that, and so I want to thank them. Perhaps the deputy minister can offer some more insight, as well.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you for that. That is good to hear, that there is going to be a meeting with the interpreters in March. It's good to just always bounce ideas off each other and speak with each other and get that camaraderie going. However, it's also important to keep new recruitment in. My next line of questioning, this kind of goes into our polytechnic, bringing that program, having something like a language portion to that secretariat so that we can bring in some new learners and get them to be taught. Like you said, there is a mentorship program. It would be a good idea to get some of our long-time speakers to come in and teach some of the ways of how to translate because, like you said, it's a very specialized area. My question to the Minister is: is there any appetite to do that with the polytechnic? Thank you.

Minister.

Thank you. The work that we are doing with the money, the $600,000 that was provided by the Assembly last year, is developing a program that is beginning as a diploma program. That would be to make adults proficient in Indigenous languages to the point where they could become interpreters, translators. We envision, after that two-year diploma program, perhaps a third year that could be interpreter-translator training. I have the same vision as the Member, I believe, in terms of utilizing the polytechnic to really become leaders in Indigenous language revitalization. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know it was before our time, but they used to have the language secretariat. I heard nothing but good things said about it. For whatever reason, the political will at the time just decided to get rid of that. For me, I think that was just a mistake. Anytime you cut funding from language, you are going to have that gap. Now, you are starting to see that. I want to see all kinds of support go towards our translators now to try to keep that going, keep trying to recruit new learners, anybody who is interested in translating, to give them all the supports they need. I am hoping we can do that with what we have here, so that is just my comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Norn. I'll take it as a comment. Any further questions? Minister, do you want to respond?

I'm happy to respond. It's one of my favourite parts of the department and, I think, one of the most encouraging. We are doing a lot of things to encourage people. We have $5,000 Indigenous-language scholarships that we provide on top of SFA. We have the Mentor Apprentice Program, which is doing exactly what the Member is talking about, getting people interested. We have rolled out the Our Languages curriculum in schools, which, from what I hear from Indigenous-language teachers, has been very welcome and I think is going to be a very powerful tool to help encourage younger children to take an interest in language. We're also developing the diploma program, as well, hopefully leading into something more.

There really is a lot, right from young to adult, and I am really looking forward to what the future holds. It took a long time to get where we are with Indigenous languages in terms of losing speakers and really the loss of language, and it's going to take a while to get where we want to be. We are taking, I think, the right initial steps to start down that path. It's very encouraging. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.