Masi, Mr. Chair. [Translation] I will be speaking my language. Today, what we are talking about is that, whenever the Legislative Assembly has a meeting, we have the interpreters available when we are speaking our language. There are 11 official languages here in the Northwest Territories. One of the languages that I am speaking is Tlicho. Whenever we have a meeting, I always speak my language. That is why today, when I sit here, I would like to say thank you to the rules and procedures committee for what we talked about. Even though we sometimes may be a little upset, we show respect to each other.
That is one of the reasons why, at that time, I didn't speak. When the Speaker made the ruling, I could have spoken further, but I knew that, if I had continued to speak at that time, nobody would have understood what I was saying. I wanted to show respect. I know that they were going to postpone it. I knew at that time, but then, Mr. Chair, when we look at this, at how to go forward after this, we always have a word upfront whenever we talk about those kinds of things. Sometimes, there can be some incidents.
I would like to thank all of the interpreters who are here, who are hanging onto their languages. If it weren't for them, there could have been a misinterpretation whenever there are no interpreters available. If the Speaker knows that there are no interpreters available, they should stop the meeting. I wanted to speak at that time, but it is like I was cut off because there were no interpreters.
Our language should be number one. Our language should be there. At that time, it wasn't like that for me. At that time, when I was speaking Tlicho, it was like I was cut off. I was so upset that I walked out of here that time. Mr. Chair, I'm saying: don't let this happen again. With this motion that is here now, we will talk about this motion, but once the chair speaks on it, the motion will be there. We should put something very powerful in place, so whenever, in the future, any interpreters are unavailable, this needs to seriously be taken into consideration, not only for me, but in the future here, when we look around the table, I want each and every one of us to speak our language.
There are 19 official languages that we have here. At times, I am the only one, but my friend here, Steve Norn, speaks his language once in a while. Sometimes, Mr. O'Reilly speaks the French language. Most of the time, every day, whenever we have a meeting, I always try to speak my language. At that time, even though some Members didn't like, I would like to see these committee report recommendations that are put in place for how we are going to go forward.
Mr. Chair, that is all I may have for now. Let's just try to make what we have stronger. Whoever speaks their language, let's encourage them to do so. It will be up to the speaker. The motion that is there now, I will talk to the motion later. That is all I have for now. For the committee report that has been done, I would like to say thank you for how we are going to go forward. Masi. [Translation ends]