NUNAVUT
The Inuit language joins English and French as official languages in the territory.
Sandra Inutiq is the Nunavut Languages Commissioner. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo |
The Nunavut Official Languages Act, effective April 1, elevates the Inuit language - Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun - to the same status as English and French.
The statutory protection for the Inuit language is not only symbolic, because once you recognize a right, then people can assert it, said Nunavut Languages Commissioner Sandra Inutiq.
"In Canada, the language rights are usually in the context of English or French," she said. "But in Nunavut, we now have a situation where the Inuit language ... has the ability to be equal to French and English.
"It invites the speakers their language is now part of the picture so it's less of that historical hangover, I guess, of the oppressive state of how language is treated."
The Department of Culture and Heritage will administer funds to help departments and public agencies meet their legal obligations. Under the Canada-Nunavut General Agreement on the Promotion of French and Inuit Languages, $5 million has been set aside for Inuit language initiatives while about $1.45 million for those affecting French.
The legislation obligates the territorial government and its agencies to provide communication in all official languages. It now creates opportunity to have Inuit language version of bills to be introduced in the legislative assembly, explained Inutiq, and eventually, for legislation to be authoritative in the Inuit language. She said that will take time because standardized terminology is needed.
"We can now have law that is written in the Inuit language and it can be interpreted in that language," said Inutiq.
Another new point in the act is that some municipalities will have to provide services in French, said Inutiq.
"There is quite a visible francophone community in Iqaluit so it's quite clear the City of Iqaluit will now have to provide services in French language as well as the Inuit language," she said.
Iqaluit Mayor John Graham said the city is developing a new trilingual - English, French and Inuktitut - web page, which should go online sometime this year. This spring, he said, the city will install trilingual stop signs.
"Our audit report, this year, will be en francais, for the first time ever," he said, adding it should be available later this month.
The city is also working on providing services to residents in French, the new city business cards are trilingual and Graham said he plans to brush up on his French.
The Department of Culture and Heritage did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
