Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
HALF OF COMMITTEE'S PRIORITIES ADDED TO THE BILL.
Committee set out to provide its priorities for changes to the Official Languages Act. To do that, committee looked at all recommendations made since the law was last changed, in 2003. Committee looked only at recommendations that were legislative in nature that came from:
- The Languages Commissioner's annual reports;
- Committee's previous two reviews of the Act; and
- Public meetings held in Inuvik in June 2021 and virtually in January 2022.
Committee identified close to 50 past recommendations in total, which are documented in an appendix to this report. While most of these recommendations had merit and continued relevance, they could not all be put forward due to the limited time available. Committee therefore provided the Minister with the 12 changes that we thought were most important. Those changes were to:
- Update the preamble to acknowledge the impact of residential schools and colonial policies on official language communities, and affirm Indigenous Peoples' language rights according to UNDRIP;
- Strengthen the Languages Commissioner's ability to get information from public bodies;
- Impose response requirements on public bodies for recommendations from the Languages Commissioner;
- Empower the Languages Commissioner with alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;
- Require the Languages Commissioner to reside in the territory;
- Ensure housing authorities are bound by Official Languages Act;
- Make the Act flexible and open to creative solutions from communities;
- Recognize Michif as an official language;
- Broaden concepts of "significant demand" and "nature of the office" and work toward accessibility of services in all official languages in all areas;
- Establish a mechanism to address violations of the Act;
- Provide a bilingual bonus to all government employees who speak an Indigenous official language; and
- Clarify the role of the Languages Commissioner in raising concerns and making recommendations to the Minister.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment included about half of these changes in Bill 63. Changes number 1 through 5 were accepted and included in the bill, while change 6 can be pursued through a change to the government institution regulations. In correspondence with committee, the Minister committed to making this change in the regulations. Unfortunately, changes 7 through 12 were not included in the bill.
Committee is pleased with the changes that ECE included in the bill and commends the Minister for working together with committee to introduce changes to the Act.
However, committee is disappointed that Bill 63 did not include more changes and was not more ambitious. Other governments in Canada have recently implemented more significant changes to bolster official and Indigenous languages. Committee hopes that the government will introduce additional legislation to protect, promote, and revitalize official languages with the same level of ambition in the 20th Assembly.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations therefore recommends:
Recommendation 1: That the Government of the Northwest Territories commit to a second phase of legislative changes to protect, promote, and revitalize official and Indigenous languages in the 20th Assembly. This new legislation should be based on past recommendations, suggestions arising during the review of Bill 63, and the advice in the committee's upcoming report on its statutory review of the Official Languages Act.
The new legislation should also seek to implement Articles 13 and 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous governments should be invited to co-develop the legislation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to pass the reading of the report over to the MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes.