Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. In the past I’ve spoken about when the department relocated a marine position out of Fort Simpson and moved it to Hay River and that position ended up in Yellowknife. I have been consistent in asking for the return of that position to Fort Simpson. If I could just get the Minister to comment on that. Thank you.

I wasn’t quite sure if the Minister said that BDIC had their own separate program to look at a business and how they could have been better helpful to that business. If anything, I was asking about our ITI department. How do we kick in the mechanism? Is it up to the business owner to ask ITI or is that something that we do as a normal course of our business? There’s a failed business out there. Bills are going to be piling up. At what point does ITI step in and use this separate mechanism to examine if this business could have kept going or what could be done better in the future?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask the Minister of ITI a few questions on conducting post-mortems on failed businesses. I’ve had a bed and breakfast fail in the community of Fort Simpson and conducting a post-mortem on that business would kind of look at how the Department of ITI could be more helpful, or the BDIC, in this situation and why did the business fail. I’m not too sure if it’s our responsibility, but is there anything within the department mechanism or program that could assist in something of this nature?

Thank you very much there, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

I think the key thing is that we just have to keep working with the communities and the different business groups. They are looking for these technologies and it is all about... I think we have to get to the stage of actually picking a project and actually piloting it. I know that some of the costs of some of the technologies can be overwhelming, but there are some projects that can be done on a smaller scale, probably with, I don’t know, mini units, Mr. Chairman.

In terms of biomass or in terms of geothermal or some of the other technologies out there, I think it can be done on a smaller scale...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will this Interpreter/Translator Program get to the level where the people attending it can be certified trainers in the regions and communities? Even I’m looking towards having something with Aurora College as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad to hear that there will be an expansion of that program throughout the North. Is that something that’s planned for the upcoming fiscal year 2010-2011? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, [English translation not provided.]

Today I would like to speak about the interpreter/translator training in aboriginal languages of the Northwest Territories. Last year the Standing Committee on Government Operations visited many communities as part of the review of the Official Languages Act. In every community, people expressed concern about the lack of interpreters and translators. They were concerned as often there was no one to help people who were fluent only in their aboriginal language. Sometimes, for instance, there was no one to translate for an elder when he had to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. As we deliberate the Department of Transportation that’s before us, I’m really pleased that we’re able to work together as a House, committee and the Cabinet, in moving some of the big ticket items forward, most particularly, the Trout Lake expansion of the airport, the relocation of the airport. That’s a huge ticket item. It was the subject of much debate earlier on in our term, but we were able to work together and see the need of it for safety and the travelling public and the community. I’d really like to say that I’m sure that working hard together we can...