Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro.

The Department’s “New Approach”

Since the 2009 review, the department has done a great deal of work to restructure the delivery of official languages programs and services in the Northwest Territories. The Minister has referred to this as the department’s “new approach.”

In the absence of a final response from ECE to the 2009 review, the standing committee has struggled to reconcile the direction that ECE has taken with this “new approach,” with the vision outlined in the standing committee’s 2009 report, which was based on the development of an official languages services model and a separate and distinct Aboriginal languages protection regime.

It might have been the department’s intention, at one point in time, to outline its new approach in the “official languages strategy” promised in the 2009 response, but it does not appear that such a strategy was ever tabled. This strategy is the missing link that might have bridged the communications gap between the recommendations contained in the 2009 report and the French and Aboriginal Languages Plans that were finally produced.

In October 2010 ECE did table a document titled “Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Plan: A Shared Responsibility.” This appears to have formed the basis of the department’s “new approach” which involved the establishment of an Aboriginal Languages Secretariat – which was under development at the time this review commenced – and the transfer of funding directly to Aboriginal Language Communities. This funding approach is apparently intended to allow the Aboriginal language communities to implement their own priorities, as identified in a series of language plans developed with the assistance of the department.

The tabling of the “NWT Aboriginal Languages Plan: A Shared Responsibility” seems to have been complemented by the “Strategic Plan on French Language Communications and Services,” which was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in October 2012. ECE officially opened the Secretariat for Francophone Affairs in Yellowknife on April 3, 2012.

In the “NWT Aboriginal Languages Plan: A Shared Responsibility,” under the strategy of “enhanced organizational support for language activities,” the department noted the need for changes to the legislation to support the strategy and also acknowledged, page 64, that legislative change was called for by the Legislative Assembly in the standing committee’s 2009 review. Thereport also confirmed the government’s intention to eliminate the Official Languages Board.

The department did bring forward a legislative proposal in June 2011 for An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act (OLA). In it, the transitional recommendations for changes to the Official Languages Act contained in the 2009 report are referenced in support of the legislative changes being proposed. However, the department only brought forward a specific component of the transitional recommendations, citing the priorities established in the “Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Plan: A Shared Responsibility” as the reason for doing so.

In August 2011 the Standing Committee on Social Programs reviewed the legislative proposal and advised that the bill should address all of the legislative amendments contained in the transitional recommendations of the 2009 report.

The standing committee was, therefore, of the view that changes to the Official Languages Act should contain the transitional recommendations on the Languages Commissioner, in addition to those referring to the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board.

No further progress was made on changes to the legislation which, consequently, remains unchanged since 2004.

Following the order of the Supreme Court of the NWT, the GNWT and the Federation Franco-Tenoise established a Comprehensive Plan Consultation and Co-operation Committee in 2010to facilitate consultation on a strategic plan for the provision of French language communications and services under the Official Languages Act. It is the understanding of the standing committee that the participation of French language community representatives on this committee supersedes, by mutual agreement, the participation of the French representatives on the Official Languages Board and that it follows the withdrawal of the Federation Franco-Tenoise from the Official Languages Board in 2006.

New members were appointed to the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board in March and April 2010. Contrary to the requirements of the existing Official Languages Act and the requirements of the regulations for both the Official Languages Board and the Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board, English, French and Inuktitut language communities were not represented.

Mr. Speaker, I would now like to return the report over to my colleague Mr. Yakeleya.