Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 22/99) - The association representing francophones in the NWT is taking both the territorial and federal governments to court.

At an annual general meeting Sept. 18, the federation voted to launch the lawsuit to force the GNWT to respect its own language law as well as to force the federal government to take responsibility for French in the North.

Federation Franco-Tenoise president Andre Legare said the NWT Languages Act declares there to be an equal status between English and French but in reality that is not the case.

In February, the federation contracted the Ottawa firm Nadeau, Beaulieu and Associates to conduct a survey of French service in the NWT.

The company found 98 per cent of the time people answered government phones without using any French.

Further, 60 per cent of the time when the caller asked to speak to someone in French, no one was available.

Another finding of the survey was that documents were available in French only 25 per cent of the time.

"The NWT Languages Act, which was enacted in 1984, is excellent. It's one of the best acts there are in Canada along with the one in New Brunswick," Legare said.

"But sadly it has never really been implemented. So that's the problem."

Legare said the federation is not out to require GNWT employees to speak both English and French, calling such a solution "ludicrous" and "nonsense."

Instead, he proposes that there be a 1-800 number direct to a service office where someone in the government could answer inquiries in French.

One specific irony is that Legare said the NWT Language Commissioner's report was not available in French.

Legare said it could take a year before the federation gets to court because of several legal steps to go through first.