Yellowknife (Aug 02/06) - The territorial government is appealing an NWT Supreme Court ruling forcing it to offer more services in French.

To fulfil the April court order, the government would have one year to hire French speaking doctors, nurses, and civil servants and publish public documents in both English and French.

According to the ruling, translation services should only be used as a last resort.

The government was also ordered to make sure the Languages Commissioner was prepared to deal with issues in French.

The government filed its appeal in the NWT Court of Appeal Monday.

Deputy premier Floyd Roland said the government is appealing the decision because the ruling justice, J.M. Moreau, did not have jurisdiction to make a ruling of this magnitude.

"We feel that the judge erred and ... moved into the authority of the legislative council," said Roland.

The deputy minister said there was testimony from several witnesses that should not have been allowed because it was not part of the allegations made against the government.

In court documents, the government states, "The trial judge permitted the plaintiffs to lead evidence in relation to various supposed breaches of the Official Languages Act that had not been pleaded..."

Roland said a third reason is the court did not take into account the limitations of the government.

He said the government gets $3 million a year to promote French language services.

To hire the necessary staff and translate the government documents is estimated in the tens of millions of dollars said Roland.

Fernand Denault, president of the Federation Franco-Tenois, group behind the lawsuit, called the government's decision to appeal the ruling "disappointing."

"The GNWT has never respected and implemented its own Official Language Act, which according to the courts guarantees real equality between the French and English languages...," he said in a press release.

"...It is evident that the government has no intentions of changing its present mode of operation."

According to the federation, there are about 3,700 Francophones in the NWT, of whom approximately 2,500 live in Yellowknife.

Although the court dismissed the federation's claim of $26 million in damages, five francophones received monetary damages of $17,650 when it was proved they did not receive essential services in French.

The trial lasted nine days and saw more than 50 witnesses.