First, we have to work at it and we have to realize we're a country from coast to coast to coast.
Second, I was so struck in the first year of my time in office—in the first year, you visit the 13 different capitals of the country. We were in Yellowknife, and in the legislative assembly there they have 12 official languages. People say, “Twelve official languages—how on earth can you make a country like that work?” It does work. It's Canada. It works very much.
Third, at one of the Governor General's innovation awards last year—this will be its fourth year—there was a marvellous professor at the University of Montreal who had taken some of the less-known indigenous languages, particularly in the north, because of the very small number of people, and by recording them and then using very sophisticated software, was able to develop the vocabulary, the grammar, and actually put it into a teachable form. It's fascinating that this innovation has occurred.
Finally, this is a very personal thing, but it's how we reach the north. The Rideau Hall Foundation, which I chair and which we set up in 2012 to be able to amplify the outreach of the Office of the Governor General, administers the Arctic Inspiration Prize. That's $60 million by two immigrants to Canada who have left their life savings to produce $3 million or $3.5 million a year to promote projects in the north, by the northerners for northerners. We've had four years of it now, and it's one $1 million prize, two $500,000 prizes, and then, typically, seven or eight prizes of $100,000 or less, usually led by young people who are still in the early stages.... Each year at least one of those, maybe two, would have to do with languages and culture. Those are important things in developing a much greater sense of the richness of the languages in our north and preserving them and making them used.