Evidence of meeting #96 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was translation.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll just quickly follow up on that. How much is the bilingual bonus? Do you know if it's different for different positions or what the amount might be?
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
It's a standard amount, and I'll have to get back to you on that. I'd like to say that it's $1,200 or $2,000 or something. Now there's a new incentive for people to learn Inuktitut and the bonus is going up, but I will get that information and pass it to Andrew later on.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
That would be great. In the federal public service, it's been $800 for several decades, so it's hardly much of an incentive any more.
I'm curious about the language commissioner position. Does she actively investigate, does she only investigate upon a complaint, or does she do both? How does that position work?
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
It's usually complaint driven, but she's very active in going out into the private sector to promote all four languages, including French. How active is she? Well, let me put it this way: she wants to take the Canada Revenue Agency to court for not providing income tax forms in Inuktitut.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
That's interesting. I look forward to seeing that.
I think you mentioned that 1.3% speak French or have French as their initial language. Are there many requests from the general public for documents in French from the legislature?
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
No, not from us, but quite a few of the government annual reports come in English and French. We've had French spoken in our legislature. It was pre-arranged. We got advance notice. It was for something special on an anniversary of the francophone association of Nunavut. When we have our public hearings on the Official Languages Act, we will do it in all four languages. I will fly up French interpreter-translators from Ottawa. That's a given. I hope that helps.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Yes, absolutely. Is that done through the translation bureau here at Parliament or through the private sector?
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
I believe that in the beginning we got the names from the Clerk of the House of Commons. We've kept that inventory, so we would contact directly those contractors who provide the services to the House of Commons.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
In theory, our time is up. Does anyone else have any questions they'd like to ask?
Mr. Saganash.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Romeo Saganash NDP Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
I have a quick question.
You mentioned in your brief the competition with other entities, such as the court system and other levels of government. I'd like you to elaborate on that, because I think that's an important point that you've raised. Is the Nunavut legislature contemplating measures to correct that situation and to have those interpreters either exclusively or on a priority basis?
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
That's a good question. I have 14 interpreters. I take great pleasure and pride in the fact that they consider us their first employer of choice, and they've become very dedicated to us. For 99% of the time, we can count on them to be there. We have our sessional calendar and they know when we're meeting, so they're committed to us.
For the other agencies, other government departments, and aboriginal organizations like NTI and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, I guess we have set the bar to the point where, when they see what we're paying, they have to raise their bar too. We've created those levels. Hopefully, as I said, when graduates come out of the Arctic College, there would be more of a supply, but right now the demand and supply are difficult. Like I say, we're very pleased that we're their employer of first choice.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Thank you very much.
Nakurmiik. It's been great and helpful for us. We appreciate your coming today with some very interesting information.
Committee members, now we're going to suspend so we can go in camera. If anyone who's not supposed to be here could leave, that would be great.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
