Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to present Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act. The Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories seeks to recognize, preserve, and enhance the use of Indigenous languages in the NWT, along with the two official languages of Canada. To do so, the act designates Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tlicho as official languages in the NWT. The act requires a review of the provisions and operation of the act to be conducted by the Legislative Assembly or a committee of the Legislative Assembly every five years. The most recent review report was presented to the House earlier today, eight years after the previous report.
Without a recent report to inform potential legislative changes, Bill 63 proposes limited changes and is less ambitious than it would be had the statutory review requirement been met. Despite this, the department welcomed a set of initial recommendations from the standing committee for amendments to the act.
Based on standing committee's recommendations and the department's engagement with stakeholders and the public, ECE is seeking to amend the act to
- Clarify and strengthen the role of the Languages Commissioner;
- To merge and empower the languages board as a single unified board; and,
- To emphasize the importance of language protection as a means of implementing the Articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.