Steve Norn

Mahsi cho, Madam Speaker. I want to speak today about the state of our 11 official languages and what I would like to see our government doing to keep these language programs running and alive. Language preservation is important to me. It's an important part of our culture and identity here in the North, and in my opinion, if you do not use it, you lose it.

When you go for a drive on the road, you will often see signs with the kilometre markers and landmarks, such as parks, and they are primarily written and English and French. I am not okay with that. Moving forward, I would like to see more...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you again for that response. Helping elders in the middle of winter like that sounds good to me. That sounds dignified. I'd like to hear more of that and hear that from other departments. That's just a comment, and that's all I have to say. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at two line items here, and a quick comment, then some questions. I'm looking at the Senior Citizen Supplementary Benefit and Senior Home Heating Subsidy, those two line items. There's not a whole lot of change in there. I want to make some comments on our mandate, with our mandate item to enable seniors to age in place with dignity. We had a couple of commitments, and that's to increase the Senior Home Heating Subsidy and to create a separate Income Assistance program for seniors or persons with disabilities, in our mandate. I would like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for his response. I did hear the word "entrenched" going forward. To me, that sounds like at some point the Minister one of his colleagues will be lobbying for more federal funding for this program. Is that what I'm hearing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. I have nothing further.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the operations expenditure summary, looking at the 2018 actuals, and there is a decrease to now, the mains, of about $480,000 for the Indigenous languages and education secretariat. Would the Minister be able to explain that decrease in the last couple of years? Mahsi cho.

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to deal with Tabled Document 30-19(2), Main Estimates, 2020-2021, with the Department of Justice, and then the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mahsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you for that response from the Minister again. Encouraging. My last question for the Minister goes to language workshops. It's applicable to all of our interpreters who are assisting right now as I speak. Can the Minister commit to having more workshops for our language interpreters, especially assisting with legal, medical, and scientific terminology in the life of this Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I caught some of that. I understand there is some forced growth there with the collective agreement. Just so I am clear again, there is no change in positions here for this department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response from the Minister. I have to say that response saddens me and upsets me. Again, we are starting this theme now where we're having a lot of programs just in the Yellowknife area. We need to have some more parity. This is a really good example of that not happening. We'll keep on going here, but I just wanted to make that known. Mahsi cho.