Masi, Mr. Speaker. I have talked about Whati, the transmission line, the power generators in the community, the lack thereof, power to the community. The community of Whati is somewhat confused now. For the last 10 or 15 years, they have been talking about the Whati Nailii project, and then, just recently, they are starting to talk about a Snare hydro transmission line, and now we are talking about a new generator going into the community. I would like to ask the Minister of Infrastructure: what is the latest status? Where are we at with the community's transmission line, either from the hydro perspective, from Snare Hydro, or the transmission line directly to the community? What is the status on that? Masi.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Today, I am going to speak on electricity in my region. Right now, Whati doesn't have electricity to their community. They only have power by diesel generator, and it has stopped so many times, for over 20 hours. The residents of Whati are very concerned. I want to make a statement regarding that. [Translation ends]

Mr. Speaker, last month, the community of Whati suffered a major power outage. It lasted an unbelievable well over 20 hours. It was a level 3 power failure, the Power Corporation's highest level of emergency. The culprit was the community's out-of-date diesel generators. There is a solution to the risky state of affairs at the Whati power station: it is to get rid of those old generators and hook up Whati to the Snare hydro grid. Mr. Speaker, the department simply is not doing that.

There is a sad irony in all of this. Get this, Mr. Speaker: Whati is the closest community in the entire territory to the Snare hydro complex. It is right around the corner, a mere 40 kilometres away. Yellowknife, on the other hand, which is on the Snare hydro grid, is four times the distance, and they are on the system.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has offered to replace the worst of Whati's three ailing diesel generators. According to my people of Whati, that is not good enough. The Whati people are starting to make a lot of noise about this. There needs to be preventative measures. We need to prevent these types of events from happening in the future. Just consider if it was minus 50 or minus 60. Good thing it was minus 15 and minus 20 at that time. Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time today, I will be asking the Minister of Infrastructure questions on this particular very important matter to my constituents. Masi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. I, too, would like to emphasize the importance of having translator training and accreditation for up-and-coming future governments. The committee has heard from various stakeholders, interpreters, and language specialists. Even in this House, on numerous occasions, I have raised the importance of having qualified people to be trained, similar to the language bureau that Mr. O'Reilly was referring to. It was a big machine back then. We don't have that right now, unfortunately, but as we move forward, I would like to see more interpreters qualified that we can pick from, as Mr. Norn alluded to, a list of interpreters lined up. I would like to, again, re-emphasize the high importance of having trained interpreters and translators so that we can have qualified people in this building in as many official languages as possible.

Mr. Chair, in closing, this is one of the recommendations that was brought forward by some of the interpreters, as well. I attended last week's language training, as well. There, again, it was stressed by language specialists that we need qualified, trained language interpreters and translators. The message is out there. It's real. Government needs to start listening. This is a real issue. We are losing our language. The Gwich'in are losing our language. Inuvialuktun are losing their language, big time. Fortunately, the Tlicho language is strong, but we have a young generation who do not speak our language. Now is the time to get our act together as government and reinforce the importance of investing in our languages. This will be a continuation of our push, and I am glad that the report reflects that. Masi, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. I just want to thank the committee for highlighting this, a week's notice. As Members of the Legislative Assembly, there are various committee meetings. To some degree, it's expected that you speak the English language in these meetings, but there are times when an individual speaks their language. This clearly lays out the groundwork. If we give a week's notice, we can speak our language in the committee meetings, teleconference meetings. I am not sure how that is going to work, but I am just glad to see that it is part of the policy now. Masi.

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]

Masi, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, the 25 percent target, that would have to be closely monitored. We have experienced in the past, whether it be with Stanton or other mega projects in the past, where it really has not been fulfilled, so I will be keeping an eye on that. Mr. Speaker, my last question is: what I would like to know is if the Minister's department has done enough to verify compliance with the local hiring targets and what enforcement measures they have taken when the targets are not met. Mr. Speaker, we still have a three-year summer project, so this is very important. I would like to know so we can get some answers on that. Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Since at least two summers, actually 2021, 2022, 2023, three summers, I am more interested in what the targets the Minister has alluded to and also the training apprentices components of local benefits agreement, so where is the training and apprenticeship component of the local benefits agreement within the contract itself?

I am more focused on the targeted agreement between RTL and also Tli Cho Construction, Tlicho Government, so can the Minister of Infrastructure tell this House what the actual local employment and business targets are for the Behchoko access road project?

Masi, Mr. Speaker. The Rae Access Road upgrade is now under way this last summer and this summer. The people of Behchoko are grateful for this long-awaited improvement on highway safety, but they are not happy with the token number of jobs and business opportunities that the project has created for the community. Mr. Speaker, the project is on Behchoko land and also uses public money, so I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. Could the Minister tell this House what the general policy is respecting local economic spin-offs from highway projects such as the Behchoko access road contract? Masi, Mr. Speaker.