Evidence of meeting #15 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bardish Chagger
I would open the floor to both Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Fredlund to answer.
Go ahead, Mr. Dunbar.
Noon
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Certainly, the feedback we receive is that doing more indigenous languages is always welcome, and it's certainly something that our office is now undertaking over the next years to try to improve and increase the amount of services we can provide in indigenous languages.
Noon
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Nunavut
Thank you, Madam Chair.
That's a great question, Ms. Idlout.
I think one of our strengths is that the majority of the office staff speak Inuktitut, but I think the dialectal differences are something that we struggle with all the time.
Moving forward and as Nunavut standardizes Inuktitut in the next 100 years, we'll have one level of Inuktitut [Technical difficulty—Editor] across the territory. That's one of our struggles. It's to ensure that people in Grise Fiord understand our translator from Chesterfield Inlet.
Noon
Language Assistance Compliance Manager, Alaska Division of Elections
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
In regard to how voting access can be improved for languages, again, our biggest struggle has been with the dialectal differences, as Mr. Fredlund mentioned. That is precisely why we subscribe to the panel translation model to bridge that divide of standardization versus specificity. The translation panels have been really instrumental in making sure that those kinds of content [Technical difficulty—Editor] across a wide geographic area.
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Liberal
April 5th, 2022 / noon
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My first question is for all three panellists. What is the voter turnout for your territorial and state elections?
We'll start with Northwest Territories and Mr. Dunbar.
Noon
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
The number is failing me off the top of my head. I know that it is certainly highest in our regional centres and lowest in Yellowknife. I believe the overall voter turnout was around 50% or 51% in the last general election.
Noon
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Nunavut
Pre-COVID, it was in the high sixties. In our last general election, during the height of our pandemic, it was in the low fifties.
Noon
Language Assistance Compliance Manager, Alaska Division of Elections
Depending on whether or not it's a general election year, our voter turnout averages between the high 40s and low 60s percentile.
Noon
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
The next question I have is for Mr. Dunbar.
You had said that you have materials translated in about 11 or 12 languages to provide during the election, but the actual ballot is only in two. Is that correct?
Noon
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
We are in the process of translating materials into the 11 official languages of the Northwest Territories. The ballot produced here for a general election just has the candidate's name as the candidate would spell it. There are no other words on the ballot. It is just the candidate's name and their photo.
Noon
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Their name can be spelled in any language, however they choose?
12:05 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
We would print their name as they wrote it on the nomination paper.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
When you went from the two languages back to increasing the number of languages that you're going to produce materials in, what thresholds were you looking at when making those decisions?
When you had picked the two, was it by the percentage of people speaking the language? What made you switch that perspective?
12:05 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
We've never stuck with just two languages. The Official Languages Act enshrines official language status for all 11 languages. For the plebiscites in 1982 and 1992, those plebiscite materials and questions were published in 10 official languages, with Cree being the exception due to an interpretation—
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
That's interesting, Madam Chair.
The sample you gave was only in French, English and one indigenous language. However, you had provided the material in 11 languages. Is that what you're saying?
12:05 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Northwest Territories
Yes, the example provided there is the eastern Arctic electoral district ballot. However, in some of the western Arctic electoral ballots, there could be up to four languages on the ballot. For Mackenzie Delta, that would have been Gwich'in and Inuvialuktun. For the Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh electoral district, that would have been Chipewyan, English and French. For the Hay River electoral districts, it would have been Chipewyan and Cree, as well as English and French.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Madam Chair, Mr. Fredlund had mentioned earlier that they have in-house capacity there and where they don't have the in-house capacity, they have good relations and connections in other communities that can help them out.
What would his advice be to our committee and to Elections Canada regarding building up in-house capacity or contracting services, perhaps through some of the same service providers they use or creating some sort of advisory group? Could I get some feedback that we can bring back to them?
