N.W.T. departments failing to offer services in Indigenous languages, says commissioner

People should have the option to communicate with N.W.T. government's departments in the nine official Indigenous languages on the phone — not just English and French — say language advocates and the territory's official languages commissioner. 

Brenda Gauthier, the N.W.T.'s languages commissioner, said Indigenous languages are absent from the territorial government's services.

When residents seek out services in an official Indigenous language, government employees don't know where to turn to ensure they can be served in their language of choice, she said during an annual report she delivered Thursday in a standing committee on government operations.

The committee is reviewing the Official Languages Act, as it is supposed to do every five years. 

The act gives 11 languages equal status within all institutions of the N.W.T. government, but Gauthier said when you phone a territorial department, active offers — a recorded message that says you can communicate in a different language when you call an organization, for example — are only provided for French.

"The Francophone …  Secretariat ensures this is done within the government institution by working with the departments at providing services," said Gauthier.

Gauthier said the Indigenous Language and Education Secretariat's mandate is to revitalize language.

She wants the secretariat to expand that mandate to include "service" and to work with territorial government departments like the Francophone Secretariat does to "ensure that Indigenous languages are being heard within these same institutions." 

Jessica Hval, a Cree language teacher at PWK High School in Fort Smith, said having those options on the phone would be helpful for her students.

There is a lot of work being done to make Cree, Chipewyan, French and English visible in her community, she said, but ensuring the languages are spoken would take things a step further.

"They're not going to see the value in learning their language if it's not in our society and daily life," said Hval. 

It's a change Paul Boucher, who teaches Chipewyan at PWK High School, would like to see too. 

"With the technology that we have today, we can do almost anything," he said. "It's just a matter of us working together and getting it done so that we have that option." 

Gauthier said she's worked for the territorial government in various positions for more than 30 years, and when she hit her 25 year anniversary she asked to receive her long service award in Dene Zhatıé (South Slavey).