Electoral Reform Committee on Aug. 31st, 2016

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

It won’t take very long.

Once again, I thank the witnesses very much for being with us today.

We are suspending the session for 10 to 15 minutes. We will see you in a few moments.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

Mr. Cullen, would you like to present your motion?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Yes, I believe you've heard it. That's it.

I don't know if you read it out yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I think I read it a moment ago, or maybe I didn't. I'll read it again.

The motion asks the following:

That the committee confirm, publish and advertise its travel to Iqaluit as soon as possible; and, when the committee holds its hearings in Iqaluit, full Inuktitut translation services be made available to the public.

Mr. Cullen, do you want to say a few words about your motion?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You said it beautifully, Chair. It's a particular part of our country that not a lot of people are familiar with. Having translation in Nunavut would be both respectful and vital to our having a good conversation there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

As a note of information, I spoke to the clerk about this yesterday, and they're looking into this.

Does the clerk have anything?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Christine Lafrance]

We are trying to find out if it would be possible to obtain those services at no cost, but that is not yet confirmed. We are in the process of assessing how much the services would cost otherwise and we will include those costs in the committee’s travel expenses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Great.

If we do not get those services free, we will pay to get them. Is that a correct understanding of what you said?

[The Clerk]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

Does anybody object to this motion?

No?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

I have something to say about it, which might result in an amendment. Let me address it first, and then we'll see if an amendment is appropriate, or if it could be dealt with informally.

It's just this. We all know this came up because the minister held a town hall in Nunavut, and there was no Inuktitut translation. Concerns were raised about that. Not being an expert in the Inuktitut language, out of curiosity I looked it up, and discovered that Nunavut has two official languages in addition to English and French: Inuktitut and another language called—and forgive me, as I may not pronounce this correctly—Inuinnaqtun, which is the language of the Kitikmeot region. The Kitikmeot region, if you have a mental image of Nunavut, is the western part of Nunavut. It's an area that sometimes feels left out of Nunavut politics. If you read the Wikipedia article on it, you'll learn why. It's physically separated. It's in a different time zone and also has a different language. To get from there to Iqaluit, you have to leave the territory and fly south. It costs about $2,000 to go one way according to Wikipedia. I haven't checked this out myself.

You can see the point that if we're trying to be inclusive, then it's important to do this. Some people say it's a dialect. Some say it's another language. This is a debate for linguists, but I wanted to mention that.

We'd probably support that.

The second thing I want to mention is that if you look at it, Inuktitut is the aboriginal language in Canada that has the largest number, by far, of monophones, or monolingual people who speak only one language, and neither English or French. That includes people in Nunavut. There's also a large Inuktitut-speaking population in Nunavik, which is the northern part of Quebec. Realistically, most of the models of electoral reform that we're looking at are not going to affect Nunavut. There will not be, for example, STV or MMP in Nunavut, no matter how much we would like to introduce it at the federal level, because there's only one seat for the territory. While it's worthwhile hearing what people who live in Nunavut have to say on the subject, it is worth remembering that this will affect them a good deal less than the people who live in Nunavik, who are not a small population. The number of Inuit people there, based on the reading I was doing on this, is about one-third of the population of Nunavut. These people who will be affected by changes, and who might be affected by changes that result in either multi-member districts or increases to...their district is already enormous. Possible larger increases would be very relevant to them.

I'm suggesting that we try to find some way of informing Inuktitut speakers, who do not reside in Nunavut itself, to participate in this particular meeting. I think it will prove profitable to them. Surely—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You're saying that we should publish the fact, advertise the fact, in Nunavik that we're travelling to Iqaluit?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Effectively I'm saying that. I was going to add that there is an Inuit community here in Ottawa as a result of the fact that Iqaluit and Ottawa are connected by air. Ottawa has become a centre of Inuit population. The Baffin Larga community centre is actually in the neighbourhood I live in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Are you saying that we should inform them so they can travel, or are you suggesting—

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Yes, so they can participate. I assume that in order to be inclusive, we are going to have some kind of means of electronic communication associated with this meeting. Otherwise people living in places like the Kitikmeot Region will only be able to attend and participate if they have the $2,000 in pocket money available to fly to Iqaluit. I am saying that we should publicize the fact that we're having a hearing in the Inuktitut language, and possibly as well in the Inuinnaqtun language—yes, absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

So the first thing is that we should try to find some interpretation for the second language.

Does everyone agree with this, that we should see if we can find some interpretation?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

A general thought, Chair, was just to rely on local knowledge as to the appropriate.... I think Scott has a point, that there are four official languages. If the local folks we're working with believe that's of importance, then absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

So we're going to try to find interpreters for two of the languages. Okay, good. We seem to have agreement on that.

The other point is that we should somehow link northern Quebec to the consultation.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

And the rest of Nunavut. One of the problems with the minister's consultation—I'm told 16 people were there—is that Iqaluit is not the territory. It's physically difficult to get there. We want to have more success in reaching people both in the territory and speakers of non-official languages as widely as we can.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

Can we have some text? I guess this is an amendment.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

The first part about the language should be an amendment. As for the rest of it, I've raised the issue, and as long as there's a consensus in the committee, I'm sure—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay, we'll look into that.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

—the effort to make it as inclusive as possible, Mr. Chair, would be fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay, good.

Why don't we have an amendment to the motion. We'll vote on the amendment, then we'll vote on the motion, and then we'll leave the clerk and the secretariat to look into how we can link up with as many people as possible, with the community of interest—I guess is a good way of putting it—when we're there.

Could you give us some wording for the amendment?