Nunavut politicians pass new Official Languages Act

Nunavut MLAs voted Wednesday to adopt a new Official Languages Act, in a move that the minister responsible says will make the Inuit language more prominent in the territory.

The unanimous vote to pass Bill 6, the Official Languages Act, came on the last day of the spring session for the Nunavut legislative assembly.

"This is a very important and historic step that the government has taken on … for the betterment of our future generations, where our Inuktitut language is pretty well guaranteed that it will have the protection by law," Louis Tapardjuk, the territory's minister of culture, language, elders and youth, said Wednesday.

Many MLAs said the made-in-Nunavut legislation has been a long time coming: Nunavut's previous language laws were based on the Official Languages Act in the Northwest Territories, which Nunavut was part of until 1999, when it became its own territory.

The existing act lists eight official languages, five of which are spoken in the N.W.T. but not in Nunavut. The new act establishes the Inuit languages — which include Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun — and English and French as Nunavut's official languages.

The legislation also sets out official language requirements for territorial government institutions, including the Nunavut Court of Justice and other public agencies.

Tapardjuk said the new law will put Inuit-language speakers "on the same level as anglophones and francophones," as well as guarantee any Nunavut resident government services in all official languages.

Because Bill 6 will replace an older act, Tapardjuk said, it must first be approved by the House of Commons before the territorial government can begin implementing the new legislation.