Pass Inuit languages act soon: Nunavut languages commissioner

The passage of Nunavut's Official Languages Act was celebrated in the territory's legislature this week, but Nunavut's interim languages commissioner says she's disappointed that another bill aimed at protecting Inuit languages didn't pass at the same time.

MLAs in Nunavut's legislative assembly voted Wednesday to adopt Bill 6, the Official Languages Act, making the Inuit languages, English and French the territory's official languages.

The legislation will replace the existing act, which Nunavut adopted from the Northwest Territories when it became its own territory in 1999. The new act requires approval by the federal government before it becomes law.

While Bill 6 was passed unanimously by the assembly, acting languages commissioner Eva Aariak noted that Bill 7, the proposed Inuit language protection act, was still on the order papers.

"I was disappointed [with] the fact that it did not go through at the same time as its parent act, the Official Languages Act," Aariak said Thursday.

"They go hand-in-hand, and I would have liked to see both of them being dealt with."

Bill 7 proposes measures to preserve and strengthen Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun in the territory, such as requiring those languages to be included on signs, bills and advertising, as well as ensuring services are provided in those languages. It also proposes to implement Inuktitut language instruction in the public education system.

Aariak said she hopes the assembly will deal with Bill 7 before its mandate ends this fall.

"I really hope, come September, that it will be passed," she said. "Otherwise if it's not passed at that time, then it's gone. Then we'd have to start all over again."

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the territory's Inuit land-claims organization, also expressed concern about the future of Bill 7. In a release issued Thursday, first vice-president James Eetoolook stated that Bill 7 "cannot be lost by inaction of the legislative assembly."

But Louis Tapardjuk, minister of culture, language, elders and youth, said he's confident that Bill 7 will pass this fall.

Speaking in Inuktitit, Tapardjuk said the chair of the Ajauqtiit standing committee, which held hearings last fall into both language bills, has assured him that the committee will work on Bill 7 this summer, and it will be ready in time for the assembly's final sitting in September.

Aariak said she is pleased to hear work on Bill 7 will continue through the summer, but added that doesn't guarantee it will be passed before the legislative assembly's mandate is over.

"I really hope that this legislation, Inuktitut protection act, will be taken seriously," she said. "It means so much for the Inuit language speakers of Nunavut, and there are many of them."

According to the 2006 census, about 20,480 Nunavut residents, or about 70 per cent of the territory's population, identified Inuktitut as their mother tongue.