.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In a territory with 11 official languages the cost of maintaining them can be high, but so can the cost of losing just one, according to an MLA.

An extensive 223-page report from the standing committee on government operations calls for an overhaul of current language legislation, to renew a commitment to protecting aboriginal languages, which are in dire straits across the NWT.

Sarah Lamalice, an elder on the Hay River Reserve, reads a dictionary of South Slavey language. A goverment report says the current Languages Act isn't working to protect Northern dialects. - NNSL file photo

The report calls for the immediate merging the aboriginal languages revitalization board with the official languages board to create an aboriginal languages board and to work on new terminologies for aboriginal languages to modernize them.

When asked what the recommendations would cost, David Krutko, Mackenzie Delta MLA – representing the majority of the territory's few Gwich'in speakers – responded: "What's the cost of losing a language?"

He added money that is currently being spent is not doing what it was intended to do.

Languages on decline

The report found aboriginal languages are being spoken in the home less and less and the situation was getting worse. For instance, in 2006, there were only 275 Gwich'in speakers – and only 20 who spoke it at home.

The importance of language cannot be underestimated, as early on the report mentions some elders are no longer able to speak with their grandchildren and pass on their knowledge of their culture.

"We're struggling so hard in communities, I tell you," said Mary Rose Sundberg, who works with the Goyatiko – "our language house" – Language Society in Dettah.

Some representatives from aboriginal language groups were glowing about the report, but were guarded with their optimism.

"We're definitely going to be waiting for action," said Sundberg.

This was echoed by Theresa Sangris – a resource elder in Dettah – through Sundberg's translation, who said recommendations from the last review were not implemented.

Little accomplished in five years

The Official Languages Act is reviewed every five years and this time, the committee looked at recommendations made in the 2003 review. It found very few of its 65 recommendations were implemented.

The report recommends the government repeal the Official Languages Act, which it says wasn't working because it didn't fit with the unique social and language regions of the NWT, and to create an Official Languages Services Act (OLSA). This would move the territory's languages act from a rights-based approach to a model where the needs of each language group – including French and each official aboriginal language – will be assessed separately and services provided.

"The focus of our report is on aboriginal languages and preservation and revitalization," said Nahendeh MLA -- and committee chair – Kevin Menicoche. "We're recommending the best process to use is to increase service delivery, which is virtually non-existent for the aboriginal languages right now."

"Let's make sure that where those speakers are, they have those services in those languages that they need," said Glen Abernethy, Great Slave MLA.

The report also calls for a separate entity to be created – the aboriginal languages protection regime – to set policy for the protection and revitalization of aboriginal languages.

The report took more than a year to compile, after consultations with language groups, communities and organizations across the NWT. It makes 48 recommendations, some which are highly critical of the government.

The committee heard over and over from language groups about the inconsistent and insufficient funding provided to aboriginal language groups to provide programs and services.

Groups also told the committee they were disillusioned by the government's lack of commitment in "fulfilling its obligations for aboriginal languages as prescribed by the Official Languages Act."

Don't fix it, just use it

Leo-Paul Provencher, with the Federation Franco-Tenoise, said the current act may not need fixing, just true implementation.

"I don't think that for our own sake the act has to be remade. Just applied," he said.

With this new needs-based service approach, he said the definition of exactly where sufficient demand for services is required needs to be cleared up and defined.

MLAs said the recommendations, if approved, will not take away the federal obligation to provide French services. "The rights will always be there," said Menicoche.

The report does not provide the government with an implementation plan but instead, broad guidelines about how to move forward.

The document was scheduled to be discussed and debated in committee Friday and today.

The government has 120 days to respond to the report.

Official Languages Commissioner Sarah Jerome was on hand for the reading of the report and said she hoped the government took the document seriously and "support it 100 per cent."

"It covers everything we've ever had concerns about," she said.

Menicoche said all the changes may take some time and it could be the next legislative assembly, which would see the creation of the two new bodies proposed in the report.