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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A hearing to address aboriginal languages in the NWT may instead result in the merger of two Northern boards.

Elizabeth Hansen, chair of the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board, said she was unclear on her board's mandate and believes it should be amalgamated with the Official Languages Board.

At public hearings hosted by the government committee reviewing the territory's Official Languages Act on Dec. 10, Hansen said the board is plagued with problems.

"The present board, as it is, is not working," she said.

The hearings were held to review the languages act, but most discussion - from board members - centred around the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the board's operation, according to board members.

Chronic administrative staff shortages and turnover, an unclear mandate, short two-year term appointments and limited funds were hampering the board's operation.

The hearing - held in Yellowknife - was only the second time the board has met since 2007.

Evidence of the board's problems came when Tom Beaulieu, MLA for Tu Nedhe, asked Hansen how the board thought implementation of 65 recommendations made in a 2002 the Official Languages Act review was going. According the Hansen the board hadn't seen the list.

Kevin Menicoche, MLA for Nahendeh, said both boards have indicated there is a duplication of work.

"They find they are doing the same thing," he said.

Menicoche said it was his understanding that the revitalization board was mandated to come up with initiatives and ideas to strengthen aboriginal languages, while the Official Languages Board was to oversee the languages act was being adhered to.

"The spirit and the intent of the legislation when it changed ... was to provide more attention to our aboriginal languages and they created two boards," Menicoche said. "But I think it had an opposite effect. It split up the resources."

Menicoche said he believed there would support for a recommendation to amalgamate the two boards.

The true intent of the hearing was to address the state of aboriginal languages in the North.

Talks centred around the decline of aboriginal language speakers in the NWT.

Glen Abernethy, MLA for Great Slave Lake, said government statistics show there are fewer than 275 Gwich'in speakers in the NWT today.

Committee members Jackie Jacobson, MLA for Nunakput, and David Krutko, MLA for Mackenzie Delta, were not at the hearings Wednesday afternoon.