Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 20/00) - Francophones may make up only 2.4 per cent of the population of the NWT, but federal language law requires that government services and documents be provided in both of the country's official languages.

It's a right the Federation Franco-TeNOise is asking a judge to enforce.

Last October the association launched a court action in an attempt to force the NWT and Yukon governments to follow what it says is the letter of the law.

Under a 1984 agreement signed by federal and territorial governments, the federal agreement covers the cost of providing French language services in the North.

The NWT government has taken the position that funding does not come close to covering the cost of the service the Federation Franco-TeNOise is demanding.

The government has stated the Official Languages Act does not require that all public government documents be translated into French.

In January the federal and territorial governments signed a five-year language agreement that this year provides $1.6 million in funding for French language services and $1.9 million for aboriginal languages.

The agreement provides a total of $17.5 million in funding over the next five years.