R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 408-19(2): Use of Indigenous Languages in GNWT Workplaces." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's always a challenge to develop legislation. In addition to the people to just sit down and write the legislation, there are some bills that need a lot of consultation before they are ever bills. People have to fly into communities to talk to communities. There is a lot of work and a lot of hours that go into developing these. That being said, we do have the capacity. It's a matter of prioritizing, and so I would just ask that the Member keep down the number of additional requests he is making of the government so that we can prioritize that legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I hope the committees are busy working right now. There is a lot of work to do outside of legislation, despite being the Legislative Assembly by name. Again, any bill that is introduced is subject to Cabinet approval, so I cannot say that a bill will be introduced by this time. However, any member of the public can go and look at the four-year business plans put out by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Every single department lists their legislative initiatives with their proposed dates when they want to introduce the bills. Now, has there been some slippage? Yes, there has, but we...

I, for one, will not forget that, and I remember all of the Member's amendments that made it stretch out until past midnight. However, we did learn from the last Assembly. We have asked departments to give us more realistic timelines for legislation and to be brutally honest and look at themselves in the mirror and say, "Can we get this done at this point?" Right off the bat, we had a more realistic list. We are also using technology to ensure that we can track our legislation better. We are one of the first divisions in the government to start using the APEX Database, which is something that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the beginning of every sitting, I provide the Regular Members of this House with a list of the legislation that is likely to be introduced. This sitting, there was no legislation planned to be introduced. That said, we are hoping to get a couple of bills introduced at some point in this sitting. However, those have to go through Cabinet, so I cannot say whether or not they will happen. Whether or not they are "substantive" according to the Member's definition, I am not sure, but we hope to have some work for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware that everyone in the territory has bandwidth issues. There are bandwidth issues here at the Legislative Assembly. There're bandwidth issues at my office in Hay River that's on the government Internet. There are bandwidth issues at my house. I know there's bandwidth issues, and yes, I'm aware that schools also have them. It's been brought to my attention. ECE works with the school boards and with the Department of Infrastructure as a facilitator because it's not ECE who operates the Internet, who invests in the infrastructure. That's a different department...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This isn't something that's currently on the radar, but I'm not opposed to the idea. I think that it's not a bad idea, actually, allow having 16-year-olds vote for school board reps. That being said, there are implications in terms of administration. The DEA right now, they share their election with the municipalities, and so there are enumerations that are shared. You have to be a certain age to vote in a municipal election, and if now we're adding another cohort of people, there are those costs, as well. It's not like it's just something I can sign off and do. There...

I believe this is the third year that the program has run. In the first year, there were 30 pairs. In the second year, there were 40 pairs. For this intake, there were 60 applications, and 40 were accepted. We have 40 pairs in the Mentor-Apprentice Program. It is very popular, and it is growing in popularity every year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not that I am aware of. I know that there are a number of apps that can help students learn or act as dictionaries, but as for an online translator, I am not aware of any. Specifically, Google does not have Indigenous languages in Google Translate. Thank you.

I am happy to have the conversation, like I said. I know that there are people who are very passionate about Michif language in the territory, and they are working to revitalize it. While there may be two- or three-hundred speakers now, that does not mean that, in the future, that number is not going to grow. I would love to see it grow, and I would love to see more than just a few vibrant Indigenous languages. I am happy to have that conversation and move forward.