Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that each department and agency be required to have an annual official languages action plan to improve and revitalize the language skills of its Indigenous employees. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that each department and agency be required to create an individual language training account for each person;
And further, the account should guarantee each Indigenous employee a minimum number of hours of language training in any Indigenous official language, as a first or second language. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is something that the federal government does for French. And I've actually had a job for the federal government where they would pay me for four hours on Fridays to take French lessons. And I think it would be great to see us doing the same thing for our Indigenous language speakers in the GNWT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance set up an Indigenous Languages Revitalization Fund in order to support Indigenous employees in the effort to reclaim, revitalize, and maintain and strengthen their languages. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories restore Indigenous language terms and spellings to refer to languages and communities;
And further, that the GNWT should update all legislation, regulations, policies, guidelines, standards, and communications within the life of the 20th Assembly;
And furthermore, the GNWT should also consult Indigenous communities on the changes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. I know that to revive our language, it is important for all of us in small communities and I know that there's great effort made in, like in Yellowknife. But I'm not too sure about I know all of the all of our language are in danger, according to the report that I heard. So I'm just wondering, like, if communities like Hay River, I just want to know and ask whether the I think there's the Dene Zhatie and Denesoline. There's a lot of, you know, people living in that area speaking those language. So I just want to know how effective is the school promoting these language? I'm not too sure. So I'm just asking that question. But this is very important. So I'm just I'm just asking that because it is important because in our school, we do the same, and but I know more needs to be done in this area. So I'm just asking. It's just more of a comment but it will be nice if we can see some kind of a report so that way we can build on it to revive to, you know like for our language to survive for long into the future. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Question has been called.
Question.
All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried. And I'm sure the Minister heard and could consider the question in their report.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment help ensure Indigenouslanguage early childhood education is available in each community;
And further, to achieve this vision, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment should provide additional and sufficient funding to program operators that use Indigenous languages. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. And just, the motion that's in your package is actually out of order. So the one that was next should be at the end. So the motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. You know, the most inspiring things we heard from committee were those cases where there were language nests for preschool children. Their brains are sponges. That's where we were learning. That's where we heard cases where you have young children talking to elders, and they are learning the language. And I think we have fortuitous timing that we are rolling out universal child care in this next few years and we are spending, you know, unprecedented dollars on child care and building spaces. And so I think it's important that we should try and prioritize a lot of those spaces to be using Indigenous languages and when they are, they should get extra funding so that they can do that. So I think it's just a unique opportunity to make sure we have those language nests as we build more early learning child care centres. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions in the motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories recognize the right of each resident to receive services in the official language of their choice;
And further, this right should go beyond the concepts of "significant demand" and "nature of the office," and follow the principle of substantive equality.
And furthermore, as such the Government of the Northwest Territories should consider quantitative and qualitative characteristics when determining service levels to each official language community;
And furthermore, this right should also be remedial in nature, designed to counter the gradual decline of Indigenous official language speakers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. First off, for the principle of substantive equality and the idea of Indigenous language rights being remedial in nature is something committee stole from the federal Indigenous Languages Act. They've actually surpassed us in the way they are treating rights. And right now the vast majority of complaints to our Official Languages Commissioner are about French language, they're not about Indigenous languages. And the right is, you know, it's you will have significant demand in the area and then it depends on the nature of the office which to me, Madam Chair, is just not really a right. It's really hard to know even if you have a right, let alone if you are able to complain about it. I know there is hesitation on the GNWT to create, you know, all-encompassing rights similar to French but I believe we can do this better with technology. There's a way to make sure interpreters are available all the time to people when they walk into a hospital, when they walk into an office, when they're dealing with child and family services. It needs to be clear that they have that right, and there's an interpreter centre set up. It doesn't and I think with technology we could make sure that is occurring. And we can give Indigenous languages the same right to service that French has. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories set up a policy and a plan to display more Indigenous language signs before the 19th Assembly ends;
And further, the policy should require all new signs at all territorial public bodies and community governments to prominently feature the local Indigenous official language;
And furthermore, the plan should set targets and offer funding for new Indigenous language signs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We heard from Indigenous language speakers they just want to see their language around more. I think a signage policy is pretty low hanging fruit. I'll note here in the Assembly, as we have replaced signs, we have included an official language. It's just simply about making it more visible. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment commission a study on the state of Michif in the Northwest Territories and options to recognize Michif in the Official Languages Act;
And further, the study should be tabled in the House within the first 18 months of the 20th Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
