Jackson Lafferty

I am glad the Minister brought up the target. I think it's very important to have each department have targets. When I talk about Indigenous male, eight, nine percent within GNWT. That is very low considering that 50 percent population of Aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories, only 30 percent of our workforce is Aboriginal. Out of that, only eight to nine percent male. It is disappointing to see those stats. It's been there a long time now. I talk about decades. I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance if there could be established targets within each department to specifically hire...

Masi, Madam Speaker. [Translation] There are a lot of workers in the Northwest Territories. There are approximately 5,000 employees. Not only that, but we have a lot of workers all over the place, Indigenous and Inuit, Metis people. They are hired by who they are, and sometimes in the Northwest Territories, people are hired differently. [Translation ends] [Microphone turned off] …single source of work in the Northwest Territories. It is the largest single employer of the Indigenous people. That makes our government absolutely essential for informing the policies of Indigenous people. No matter...

Mr. Chair, from what the Premier shared with us, obviously not everybody is onboard. This whole thing called secretariat, another form of bureaucracy within this government. We have 5,000-plus employees, almost 6,000, in the Northwest Territories, and we're going to create another 150. Mr. Chair, obviously, I fully support a coordination to deal with COVID-19 since March. We were doing fine with MACA and various other departments coordinating with internal resources, internal bodies that can take on these work assignments. When it came to the secretariat in August, that was the first time we...

Masi, Madam Speaker. I am glad that the Minister is confident and that there is work in place hopefully to develop some more or establish more interpreters here in the Northwest Territories. Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I am more focused on expediting the process. What we talked about is: there are two years or could be less. Will the Minister commit to developing a fast-track program for development of a new generation of professional Indigenous language interpreters here in the Northwest Territories, which is badly needed as we speak...

[Translation] In 1990, we had a language bureau. There were a lot of interpreters then. There were a lot of interpreters with the GNWT at that time, but today, we do not have. I would like to ask the Minister that question: how many today? Is there any training? Are there any interpreters to be trained at this time? [Translation ends].

Masi, Madam Speaker. [Translation] This past week, we are talking about the apprentice, just like my oldest son, Edzo Lafferty. He had to receive, so I know that he has a journeyman paper, and all his brothers and sisters, his grandfather, are very thankful. While I speak, I'm very thankful for my son. [Translation ends].

Madam Speaker, just to continue on with my Member's statement on overall education, today, I want to talk about one of the greatest treasures in this territory, our Indigenous languages. Our Indigenous languages are rare, unique, in all the world. They are beautiful to hear...

Mr. Chair, I'm not sure how Members feel that this is not an important matter. We're talking about $8.7 million here. New money. If nobody else is going to speak to it, I want to close it off by saying that this has been an ongoing issue since March, and then the secretariat came in in August. We need to have a coordinated approach. We always have that at the beginning, and I felt that it was the best approach amongst other departments.

The Member alluded to me attacking the Premier. It's the Premier's job to defend the government. I'm asking and I'm pointing facts to the Premier. I'm not...

Masi, Mr. Chair. [English translation not available.] Mr. Chair, I move that $8.277 million not previously authorized be deleted from the Health and Social Services operations expenditure for COVID secretariat in the Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021. Masi, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Chair. This is a whopping millions of dollars here. We can't just approve it just like that. In this House, maybe the Minister or the Premier can explain. The Premier did indicate that there was a strong support from Indigenous leaders across the North. I've been making a call to my leadership. I don't see the same note as the Premier alluded to. Just wondering if the Minister or Premier can elaborate more if there is overall support from Indigenous leadership across the North, and also the mayors and the NWTAC, are they in support? If so, can I have those in writing if they do have...

[Translation] Just regarding the interpreters' training, we do not have interpreters' training as of today. You can see there are interpreters here. Most of them have white hair, and now, in terms of their jobs, they are ready for retirement. We know that they are ready for retirement. What if they retire? We want to have another interpreter to take over. At this time, Madam Speaker, I have a question for the Minister. [Translation ends]. [Microphone turned off] ...interpreters are essential for the use and survival of our official languages. Could the Minister describe the government's plan...