Mr. Speaker, Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, and commends it to the House.

Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, received second reading on November 2, 2022 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review. The Official Languages Act recognizes the "official" status of eleven languages in the NWT. The Act sets out the rights, rules, and responsibilities for using these languages in different parts of government.

Bill 63 updates the Act for the first time in twenty years. Many of the proposed changes were recommended by committee in early 2022. Specifically, Bill 63:

• Clarifies and strengthens the role of the Languages Commissioner;
• Merges the two languages boards; and
• Updates the preamble to recognize:
• The impact of colonialism;
• The relevance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and
• The government's commitment to fair access to services for residents who speak Indigenous languages.

This report describes how committee engaged with the Minister before Bill 63 was introduced. It also summarizes how different stakeholders responded to the proposed changes and what committee decided on key issues.

This report is separate from committee's upcoming report on our statutory review of the Official Languages Act. That second report will touch on some of the larger changes committee wants to see. Committee will present this report before the end of the February/March 2023 sitting.

Committee Welcomes Changes During the 19^th Assembly

The Official Languages Act needs to be reviewed about every five years - with the last review happening in 2014. Committee started a new review in early 2020, but it was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee was unable to travel to communities and consult the public because of public health orders, local outbreaks, and the Members' desire to avoid spreading the virus. As a result, many plans had to be postponed.

In December 2021, committee decided that the review of the Official Languages Act could not be finished in time to make changes to the law before the 19th Assembly's term ended. However, it had been almost twenty years since the Act was last updated and, during that time, many important and straightforward amendments had been suggested. Therefore, committee urged the Minister to work with us to create and propose new legislation before the Assembly's term ended. The Minister agreed and welcomed Committee's input for a bill.

I will now pass the reading over to the Member for Kam Lake.