Well since day one , April 1, 1999, I can count on my hand the interpreters we've used. Four of them are still there. We've gone through quite a few interpreters over that time. They have left us only because of health reasons, or they've retired. Some of our interpreters came from NWT when we split. Obviously with the Inuktitut interpreters, we inherited them. Some of them were living in Nunavut anyway, so we automatically contracted them. They've been with us since day one. The other Inuktitut interpreters who made Yellowknife their home were part of our team from the beginning, but, over time, they have retired, etc.
What we have seen in the past two assemblies, and actually began to recognize in the second assembly, is that we're having a lot of difficulty getting new people into the stream. We've been faced with that problem since day one. We have worked with Nunavut Arctic College to try to establish an interpreter-translation program, and it has slowly developed.
I'm looking forward to the current program, because I believe they have eight or 10 students. We have let them do simultaneous translation in the house. Of course, we alerted all the members to please be patient, that they may make mistakes, but it worked out very well. I think this is the year that they graduate, so I'm looking forward to seeing how many of them will come over as contractors, or go back to the communities to provide those services.
It's a continuing challenge, in that sometimes I wonder if interpreter-translator is a career path that a lot of people want in our young community in Nunavut. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because it won't be long until a lot of our present interpreters will be retiring.