Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government receives funds for the French from the federal government as one of the recognized languages in Canada. Has the Minister communicated that to the appropriate Minister in Ottawa to advise them that there are other Aboriginal languages that need funding such as the one that we’re getting for this French and that this government will seek stronger dollars to implement our language programs? Can the Minister advise me?

I’m very pleased to hear the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment talk about working towards this plan and also that it will be coming up in the business plans. I want to ask the Minister if in the interim, as we work towards this plan, there are mechanisms in place that will involve the regional translators as communities have different dialects and languages so that he’s already started to put together some plans in place where the regional input will be taken also into the office of the secretariat.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my beautiful wife and my gorgeous son up there. I want to say thank you to my wife. In my language I want to say… [English translation not provided.] In my language it means honey, I love you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister several questions. However, first I would like to make my comments to the bill right now.

This bill here, as the Minister indicated, hasn’t been increased for awhile. The Minister has said that this bill here, looking at an increase of $100 million from $175 to $275 million, it is increased to a short-term borrowing authority and that this money is needed to pay a $65 million bill that we need to honour to the federal government. The repayment is within a couple of months from now, March 31, 2012. I really don’t know what the financial impact...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments from the Minister of Finance to the interim appropriation bill here, I wanted to clarify that. I wanted to ask, hoping he was asking some of the specifics to the Minister of Health. For example, the Nurse Practitioner Program. We know it’s running. There are going to be graduates this year. This is only an interim appropriation for the operations to continue. I want to ask what plans you have for the nurse practitioners. There are going to be graduates. Is it still a program? Do we wait until business plans? I know some of these things are going to take...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I refer to questions on some of the items contained in Tabled Document 1-17(2), Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, and seek unanimous consent of committee to return to general comments on Tabled Document 1-17(2).

Would this Aboriginal secretariat be one of the permanent secretariats within the government, or would it be just within the 17th Assembly’s business, or are we looking at 20, 30 years, maybe longer, to establish a strong, permanent secretariat office within the government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Plan was tabled in the House just about a year ago. The plan states the vision of a time soon to come. The Aboriginal languages are used extensively on a daily basis to communicate in NWT homes and the communities as well as within the organizations and agencies providing services to the public. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if he would look at advancing this further by establishing an Aboriginal languages agency or secretariat in the government to continue on with this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other night I was watching the news and I was watching Mr. Harper’s visit to China. When he was talking to the head of state in China, I noticed that behind him and the Chinese head of state they had translators and they were conversing, but the translators were helping them understand the two different worlds and what they were talking about. I thought that the Northwest Territories needs to have a good look at how we support our Aboriginal languages in our communities. The government needs to look at sort of an Aboriginal translation agency or secretariat.

When we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a written question for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Can the Minister provide the rate of diabetes among Sahtu residents for 2003?

Can the Minister provide the rate of diabetes among Sahtu residents for 2001 or the most recent year for which the data is available?