R.J. Simpson

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So far, there hasn't been a movement toward making Michif an official language. I think I actually had these same questions in the last Assembly. From my understanding, there is a relatively small number of speakers in the Northwest Territories, and I think there are some speakers who might be speaking Michif who identify as speaking a different language. Perhaps there needs to be more research around this. I know that the Standing Committee on Government Operations is undertaking a review of the Official Languages Act, and so this is something that can be pursued in...

This is a topic discussed frequently around the Cabinet table. ECE doesn't have responsibility over this. Of course, the Minister of Finance is often answering questions about this in the House. The Minister of Infrastructure is responsible for the government infrastructure, but I have conversations with both of them. At the national level, I have conversations with the other Ministers of education of Canada, and we've approached the federal government about the need for investments in broadband infrastructure. The Student Financial Assistance program has provided a monthly technology grant of...

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.

I would just be repeating everything I said. Maybe I jumped the gun and answered the question too early, but the Member can refer to my last answer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Already done.