Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. Again, the challenge is whether you want to focus specifically on very small groups; then it becomes a problem. For larger groups, yes, we have the information sometimes on the main level, the major field of study. We have where they work, types of industry, and occup

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. Of course, we could provide that kind of information, but we always have to be careful because when we look at the Cree language families overall, we know for the most part they are concentrated. We find 28% in Saskatchewan, 24% in Alberta, and 22% in Manitoba. They could be

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We talk about school. We know that when we think about the future of communities, the fact that children know or are able to speak the language is a very strong indicator of the future and vitality of long-term viability of these languages. We have seen many times—even among Fre

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At one time, only Cree was included in the census. The census enumerated fewer languages than it does now. Further to consultations, we decided that, as long as there are variations of a language, we will prompt census respondents to specify which language. By asking respondents

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The statistics do not indicate such a link, but we can certainly form hypotheses. Moreover, we have done that with respect of official language minorities, for example, for which there is official recognition and a structure in place. We conduct surveys about perceptions. The im

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely, so the minute an indigenous language is reported, whether it's “Cree and English”, because we know there are many multiple responses for indigenous people.... We see there is enormous variation, but what is very interesting is that when we look at the acquisition inde

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely, you're right. We did it for official languages in minority communities. We even compared the age pyramid or age structure between 1971 and 2016, and it changed completely, because, over time, the population is aging, and the language is not being transmitted fully to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. It just depends on whether you want that for the overall indigenous languages all together or for specific languages. We could certainly provide that information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I mentioned, there are many factors that can have an influence on the vitality of those languages. All specialists mentioned that speaking a language at home is certainly a critical domain, but as we know, it's not only speaking a language at home, but also it involves social

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They're very relevant comments. We use a term called “continuity index” when we look at the number of people speaking a language most often at home versus those having this language as their mother tongue. You're absolutely right, there's an enormous difference between language

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We could certainly provide you with that information. We can gather the information.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We know fairly well, from our statistics and our studies, that it's always a challenge when we have mixed marriages, because when the language is spoken at home usually it is the language that will be transmitted to children. As we mentioned, because there are many indigenous peo

Procedure and House Affairs committee  A critical mass, that's right.