Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It was actually a great day yesterday that we were able to table this Final Report on the Review of the Official Languages Act, 2008-2009. I really think that the title is appropriate. It is called “Reality Check: Securing a Future for the Official Languages of the Northwest Territories” and most in particular we say “reality check” because as we did our work we found that our aboriginal languages are in serious decline in all sectors, even our strongest aboriginal speaking communities. There is decline.
Before I go on, because of the formal nature of the proceedings yesterday, we weren’t able to recognize the rest of the committee, which is Mr. Robert Hawkins, the deputy chair; yourself, Mr. Chair, Glen Abernethy; Mr. Jackie Jacobson, MLA for Nunakput; and Mr. David Krutko, who just spoke earlier here. As well, we did not have an opportunity to recognize Mr. Tom Beaulieu, the Member for Tu Nedhe, who was able to use a lot of his time to help us carry out this work as the standing committee travelled and discussed the issues and heard the issues from the communities.
We certainly are suggesting many abrupt changes in the way we are doing business as the Government of the Northwest Territories, most particularly towards our aboriginal languages. The French are making great strides in utilizing the legal field for continued entrenchment of their rights. For me as chair, I view it as a positive thing for them. I am glad they are heading that way. At the same time, what we heard in the communities was that our aboriginal languages must be as important to our government. Because the French are working that hard, we have to work that much harder at aboriginal languages. We have nine official languages in the Northwest Territories. To do the
work nine times that the French are asking for is rather difficult. To think that is why in our report we would rather see an aboriginal language secretariat set up that can manage all nine aboriginal distinct linguistic groups. I think that is critical. I also think that regional delivery model systems are also critical. There has to be a way to ensure that those aboriginal speakers and elders that wish to be served in their language of choice, that the ability is there.
Needless to say, it doesn’t make sense to have a Gwich’in speaker located in Fort Simpson when there is just not enough speakers there to support that role and, alternately, having a South Slave speaker located up in, say, a community of Tuktoyaktuk just does not make sense. What does make sense is the ability to deliver the local language locally. I certainly strive towards seeing that.
One of the biggest things we heard, of course, throughout our report we said in the report and the media yesterday, was that the existing system is not working for aboriginal languages. The SCROLA or report did lots of things to enhance and talk about revitalization of the aboriginal languages. In fact, they set up an Aboriginal Language Revitalization Board instead of a language board. They created the office of the Commissioner. But I think what that had done, in my assessment there, Mr. Chairman, was that it spread all of our resources too thin. I think the attempt of our report and our recommendation is to try to consolidate these resources. I don’t think there were enough specialists or people to actually support two big boards. We are suggesting one. We are suggesting an aboriginal languages secretariat. We are suggesting that the role of the Commissioner change. Even though the wording says deleted but I believe the role of the Languages Commissioner people expected to be more than just an oversight role. They want to see promotion. They want to see revitalization and support from that type of office for aboriginal language and that is what we talked about a lot in our report.
With that, those opening comments, Mr. Chairman, once again I would like to think committee members for their hard work and to all the language frontline workers that are out there that provided their expertise and their input. I look forward to working with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment as they deliberate this report. I think we did ask them to respond to us specifically within a certain number of days and certainly I would like to see that feedback and see some significant changes before our term ends here in about two years, Mr. Chairman. With that, thank you very much.