Official Languages committee  Having a space, a community center, a hub, where we can bring together all the francophone community organizations under one roof, is clearly a priority. It is crucial in order to create synergy and to share resources and save money. What’s more, there’s also the issue of continuity and making sure francophones stay put in the Northwest Territories.

Official Languages committee  We have had to lay people off in the past, but that is not the major problem. The problem is that there is a lot of transience. That forces us to renew our resources every year. People don’t work for long or stay long in the Northwest Territories. As a result, it is difficult to implement a sustainable organizational culture.

Official Languages committee  That certainly has an impact. Now that the trial and legal dispute phase is over, we are trying to restore these relations, but it is not easy. It was a long and arduous battle. Our association fought in court for 10 years. A number of battles were waged by parents’ associations to have schools built and expanded.

Official Languages committee  Thirty-two years ago.

Official Languages committee  Obviously we always want more. We are never satisfied with what we have, and enough is never enough. Our role, as a federation, is to ask for, and demand, more. I think that we are living in an era of renewal and expansion of language rights. The francophone presence was important in the early history of the Northwest Territories.

Official Languages committee  I would say that it is more a matter of the survival of the language than the delivery of services in that language.

Official Languages committee  I’m sorry, I spoke very quickly because the brief was quite long. In fact, I was referring to aboriginal communities represented by aboriginal leaders who are standing up for aboriginal languages. Their political goals do not necessarily correspond with ours. Given that very few people speak some of these languages, the NWT government does not focus on service delivery in those languages.

Official Languages committee  That is currently one of the topics for discussion between our consultation and cooperation committee and the government of the Northwest Territories. The government has to develop an Official Languages Act implementation plan. It does so with the expert assistance of Mr. Bastarache and Ms.

Official Languages committee  Obviously, as president, I’m not the one who manages the daily inflow of cash. However, everyone knows full well that over the past three or four years, there have been problems with Canadian Heritage and that grants have been awarded very late in the fiscal year. That has caused problems for much of the financial year.

Official Languages committee  Do you want to answer? We have a line of credit—

Official Languages committee  To my knowledge, the FFT has lived off credit for six months of the year for the past five years while waiting for the project funding to trickle in.

Official Languages committee  In 2010, yes we did.

Official Languages committee  Obviously, there are fees associated with lines of credit, and that makes things tough for community organizations like ours.

Official Languages committee  Do you want to answer that question?

Official Languages committee  Our recommendations deal with our two top priorities. To begin with, we need help getting a community space. I think that is the top priority. We determined that it was a priority about 10 years ago. In fact, when I came to the Northwest Territories about nine years ago, it was already a hotly debated issue.