I am probably going to ask you a dozen more questions here, but I want to ask R. J. Simpson, who has joined us from my neck of the woods, a couple of questions.
I'd like to first of all acknowledge that today is the first day of Indigenous Languages Month in the NWT, so I'd like to say mahsi cho to R.J. for appearing.
I was quite happy last year. We announced $17.7 million from the Government of Canada to support the Canada-Northwest Territories Agreement on Indigenous Languages. As the minister has indicated, we have nine official indigenous languages, but there are more. The Michif language, which we heard about the other day, doesn't get recognized in the Northwest Territories, and there are several others.
A number of these languages are still being spoken in the communities, but if you talk to the elders, they say that a lot of the language is now being watered down. The younger people are speaking a different version. The language is not as strong.
I'd like to ask the minister if he could explain how the GNWT is working with those communities like the Gwich'in communities, because the Gwich'in language is expected to disappear in 10 years if we continue the way we're going. I'd like to ask him how he's working with those communities where the language is actually threatened.