Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Jan. 30th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

I call the meeting to order.

Good afternoon. Welcome, everyone.

Welcome to meeting number 47 of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs.

Like previous meetings, today's meeting will take place in a hybrid format.

For those participating virtually, I would like to outline a few rules to follow, since this is the first meeting of 2023.

You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting in French, English, and Inuktitut.

You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either floor, Inuktitut, English, or French. Please select your language now so that you'll be ready. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately, and we'll stop the process until we fix the problem.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name, or if you are in the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your mike will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.

Please address your comments through the chair.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you're not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

With regard to the speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do our best to respect the order in which people will be speaking.

I would like to ask the committee to consider the adoption of the budget for the indigenous languages study. You've all received this by email. It covers costs related to our meetings, including witness expenses, meals and telephone lines.

Do I have the committee's agreement?

The agreement is unanimous.

Lastly, I would like the committee to adopt the work plan that was circulated in December. It lays out the road map for the next three meetings of this study. Granted, the work plan is subject to change based on the availability of the witnesses, but do I have the committee's agreement?

There is agreement. Thank you.

With that, we'll begin our study.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on November 21, 2022, the committee is resuming its study of indigenous languages.

Today, for our first panel, we welcome Ms. Karliin Aariak, who is the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut. She is here in person today. From the office of the president of Makivik Corporation, we have Ms. Kitty Gordon, who is also with us in person today. From the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation, we have Mr. Mark Nelson and Mr. Ed Schultz. They are representing 25 self-governing indigenous governments.

For the benefit of our witnesses, we provide you with five minutes to make some introductory remarks. Mr. Nelson and Mr. Schultz, you'll share your five minutes. We will then go to questions from the committee members.

With that, I would like to invite Ms. Karliin Aariak to begin the proceedings today with a five-minute introductory opening.

[Karliin Aariak, Languages Commissioner, Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut]

[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you. I hope everyone can hear me.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson and all of the members, for inviting me. I am happy to be sitting here with you. I will be talking about how it is in Nunavut, because it is very unique and different from other areas of Canada.

Now, in terms of our Inuit language, there's Inuktut, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut. As the language commissioner in Nunavut, I am talking in my language to show that we are in support of our languages and are fighting to keep them alive.

[English]

More precisely, my primary duty is to promote and safeguard the language rights of Nunavummiut.

Nunavut has two distinct languages acts: the Official Languages Act, which recognizes, as I mentioned, the Inuit language, English and French; and the Inuit Language Protection Act.

I'm just going to go through the differences between those two acts for a minute.

OLA, the Officials Languages Act, recognizes Inuktut, English and French as our territory’s official languages. It creates important obligations for the Nunavut government departments and public agencies, the legislative assembly and the Nunavut courts to serve the public in all of the official languages. The federal government and organizations from the private sector don’t have to comply with OLA.

By contrast, the Inuit Language Protection Act was designed specifically to counter, among other things, the negative effects of colonization, or

the past government actions and policies of assimilation and the existence of government and societal attitudes that cast the Inuit Language and culture as inferior and unequal, and acknowledging that these actions, policies and attitudes have had a persistent negative and destructive impact on the Inuit Language and Inuit;

Moreover, at a minimum, article 13.1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples proclaims the right of indigenous peoples to:

revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literature, and to designate and retain their names for communities, places, and persons.

Federal agencies, departments and institutions have a legal and moral obligation to comply with Nunavut's legislation. Canada commits itself to respecting the UNDRIP declaration for indigenous people, and federal agencies, departments and institutions in Nunavut have to comply with the ILPA— that's the Inuit Language Protection Act—in Nunavut.

However, the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut continues to receive—we continue to receive—concerns involving federal agencies, departments and institutions in Nunavut.

The issues that my office faces in addressing concerns involving the federal agencies, departments and institutions in Nunavut include a lack of response from the obligated federal agencies, departments and institutions, and/or the absence of tools to enforce their compliance with the law, even if the complaints are admissible.

This is especially concerning because federal agencies, departments and institutions in Nunavut are accountable for the lack of Inuktut in their oral communications, public signs, posters and reception and client services, as required under ILPA.

[Witness spoke Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

The primary language of the Nunavummiut is Inuktitut. They speak their primary language in their homes, but that is being lost. There were studies conducted by Statistics Canada to see if Inuktitut was being kept alive or being lost. In 2016, the researchers found that the number of people who could speak their language in their homes was 23,225, or 65.3%. These are the statistics in Nunavut. Also, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that 23,970 people, or 52.9%, of Nunavut residents were able to speak in their language, which is Inuktitut.

This is a growing concern for us.

[English]

The decline is significant, and positive actions are more important than ever.

I'd like to get to a few examples of the concerns that our office receives.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Ms. Aariak, I'll have to ask you to wrap up, because we have a lot of questions that are going to come.

[Karliin Aariak]

Okay. I'll just get to one of the examples. I can get to more later.

Information related to health, such as the "mask required" sign posted on our door during the election, was only in English, whereas there are unilingual voters in the community.

To address these concerns, I am recommending the following administrative and legislative tools, which I believe are vital for implementing and enforcing the existing law.

A memorandum of understanding is recommendation number one. Establish an MOU with federal agencies, departments and institutions in Nunavut. This will be the mechanism to improve communication on language issues and resolve them while concerns are raised about a federal institution in Nunavut.

Recommendation number two is a legislative tool to hold the Privy Council accountable for the implementation of recommendations on language issues in Nunavut and ultimately in Canada; and to establish a clear time frame for federal agencies, departments and institutions operating in Nunavut to respond to our office's recommendations.

In conclusion, the adoption in 2007 by the vast majority of countries around the world of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was a historic moment when UN states and indigenous peoples reconciled with their painful histories and resolved to move forward together on the path of human rights, justice and development for all. Moreover, UNDRIP declares 2022 as the beginning of the international decade of indigenous languages to ensure indigenous peoples' rights to preserve, revitalize and promote their languages.

Therefore, it is imperative for all federal agencies, departments and institutions operating in Nunavut to commit to taking all positive and necessary steps for the implementation of the Inuit Language Protection Act and the usage, preservation, revitalization and promotion of the Inuit language in Nunavut.

Qujannamiik. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Ms. Aariak.

We will now go to Ms. Gordon, from the Makivik Corporation.

Ms. Gordon, you have five minutes.

[Kitty Gordon, Coordinator, Office of the President, Makivik Corporation]

[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

I am Kitty Gordon from Kuujjuaq. I grew up in Kuujjuaq. My mother, grandparents and family brought me up.

[English]

I come from Nunavik, which is the region above the 55th parallel that is located in northern Quebec. There are roughly 14,000 inhabitants spread out in 14 communities. Approximately 90% of Inuktitut-speaking Inuit live in Nunavik, which is higher than other regions as compared to the rest of Canada.

To us, language is an integral part of our identity. Although it might be a small population, there are three distinct dialects in Nunavik, which contribute further to our uniqueness.

Sadly, our language is rapidly eroding. Traditional knowledge is passed down from generation to generation, primarily through oral history learned from one generation to the next.

I am here today on behalf of Makivik, the birthright organization that represents the Inuit of Nunavik. Makivik is an inception of the first modern treaty in Canada, which is known as the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. As we learn over the years, we are beginning to see that this agreement was more or less forced on our young Inuit leaders at the time.

How can we protect our language?

In our region, we have the Avataq Cultural Institute, which is a key player for language and culture in Nunavik. Ilirijavut, a report that came out in 2012, contains several recommendations on language and how to keep it alive. Makivik works in partnership with Avataq.

On Inuktitut in Nunavik, as I mentioned before, our language is alive but eroding. There are generational gaps and, sadly, the language is being diminished between generations. We're not looking for standardization. Dialects are distinct and we want to maintain it that way.

There's a major shortage of interpreters and teachers in our region. The curriculum needs to be developed in Inuktitut, and the working conditions for Inuktitut teachers need to be on par with non-Inuit teachers.

Recognition of Inuktitut as an official language in Nunavik will be a key component of our self-determination process. The implementation of an Inuktitut language authority is a key priority for Nunavik.

The implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act provides access to funding. It is a yearly funding process and it is project-based. In 2022-23, we received $1.4 million. What we need is adequate, sustainable and long-term funding. It is important that the funding be flexible and that it allow for Nunavik to establish its own priorities through self-determination for Inuit by Inuit.

We would like to build a working relationship with the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages in an effort to combat the threat of the loss of our language.

Lastly, keeping our language alive should not be at the mercy of ad hoc annual funding agreements. We should be able to self-determine and identify our needs ourselves through self-determination.

Nakurmiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Ms. Gordon.

On the interpretation, the Inuktitut was coming through on the English channel. Perhaps the technicians can look at that.

Our next witnesses, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Schultz, will have five minutes. I'm not sure whether one of you will speak for the five minutes or whether you'll share it.

Please go ahead. We're ready.

[Ed Schultz, Governance Director, Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation]

Thank you for the opportunity. I will speak quickly. We want to leave plenty of time for questions.

I'm very fortunately with one of the 24 self-governing indigenous governments that have been working over the last two years on a model under the collaborative fiscal process with Canada that we've been working on since 2017. It's very much in keeping with all the modern treaties that we have with Canada—the obligations and so forth.

I want to emphasize that language courses, as we've just heard, are essential to indigenous peoples' identities and a key basis of our well-being. A big issue related to the negative social indicators that our people are sometimes challenged with is the lack of their knowledge of our languages.

Language, culture and identity are essential foundations for our self-government. That was the premise of entering into modern treaties with Canada, but is one of the most weakly funded parts that we have.

It is a critical time for self-governing indigenous languages. Most of the 26 have only a few remaining speakers—very few. The model draws on expertise researched about approaches that truly support languages by creating speakers and how these approaches should be implemented.

I was kind of tossed up between just saying what I wanted to say versus what I was told to give you.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mark.

[Mark Nelson, Fiscal and Implementation Representative, Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation]

Thank you.

Good afternoon to the members of the committee.

As Ed said, Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation and other self-governing indigenous governments have been working together with Canada on updating Canada's fiscal policy on self-government and building out what expenditure is needed for various areas of responsibility, including indigenous languages.

Our work over the last couple of years has been in building a model of expenditure for what is needed on the ground by these indigenous governments to support their language. As Ed mentioned, with very few remaining speakers, the focus is on immediate and focused immersion-type approaches that will pass the language from the remaining speakers to a new generation.

These are intensive programs, such as full-time adult immersion done in cohorts of about 10 people, preschool language nests for young children, mentor-apprentice programs for more one on one, intensive learning and silent speaker support for people who understand the language but don't speak it actively.

In building the expenditure need model, we looked at assessing what is needed to implement those programs on the ground in a way that they're effective. We looked at existing examples. We looked at the realities on the ground in the communities. We identified what we think base capacities are that are needed to put those programs into practice, what incremental capacity might be needed as the population of the community increases and there's more demand on those programs, what some of the operational costs are that are involved in doing things like on-the-land learning, learning through cultural activities and what resources are needed for creating multimedia tools in support of that learning. All of this was built into the expenditure need model.

As I mentioned, this is all part of the work with the federal fiscal policy process, and we're working with Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage and CIRNA to put forward a proposal for a phased implementation of this model that allows the indigenous governments to build up their capacity over time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you very much, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Schultz.

Thank you to our witnesses for your opening remarks.

We'll now proceed to the first round of our question period of six minutes. We will begin with the Conservatives.

Mr. Zimmer, you have six minutes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Thank you Mr. Chair, and happy new year.

I want to say thank you again to you for coming to the committee all the way from Nunavut. It's a long way away. I was there this summer. Many have heard that story probably too many times. It's a beautiful area. It's a little colder up there than it is here right now. It's about -30C° plus.

Recently I was visiting the Kitselas band in B.C. with our leader, Pierre Poilievre, and one of the things we were honoured to be briefed on was how they were trying to preserve their language. What was highlighted by other colleagues in the meeting today was about some of the elders. There aren't necessarily a whole lot of elders left, depending on the community. Also, to help with that process, there aren't a lot of youth who are able to put that down on paper to really translate and get the language down.

It made me want to ask you some questions and raise some concerns around how we could be doing better. Certainly, in 2019, it was announced that the government was going to proceed, and since then almost $1 billion has been allocated to make this happen.

Karliin, I heard you say what things still need to be fixed, and I want to get into that a little more.

It's about outcomes, because I think we want to see that this is actually getting done. There are a lot of challenges around it. I'll start with Karliin and we'll go to Kitty after that.

What still needs to be done? What could be done better to achieve the outcomes? We heard about long-term funding and those kinds of things, but here's some time for you to say, “If I were the person doing this, this is what I would do.”

We'll start with Karliin.

[Karliin Aariak]

Qujannamiik, Mr. Zimmer.

I can only talk about my jurisdiction in Nunavut. My mandate as the languages commissioner is to ensure people are aware of their language rights. When Nunavummiut feel that their language rights have been infringed, they can send us their concern. We then investigate those concerns and whether language rights have been infringed.

The fact that my office is still receiving concerns from Nunavummiut is an indicator there is still a lot of work to be done. My role is to ensure that people are aware of their language rights and to make the obligated bodies aware of their language obligations.

In terms of funding, in the Inuit Language Protection Act there are three distinct offices: the minister of languages, which is with the Department of Culture and Heritage within the Nunavut government, and an Inuit language authority that is mandated to standardize terminology and to preserve traditional terminology.

In terms of the fact that my office is still receiving concerns, the recommendations we've been putting out there are not being addressed; hence that recommendation to have one central agency within the government, because they are obligated in Nunavut to comply with the Inuit Language Protection Act. There are many different government departments and agencies. To have one particular agency.... I mentioned the Privy Council. I'm open to discussions. Maybe it's the Treasury Board. Maybe it's Heritage Canada, but I'm open to those discussions.

Evidently, with the fact that I'm still receiving concerns as a languages commissioner, the language rights obligations are not being met by the federal government specifically.

Qujannamiik.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Sure. Thank you.

Go ahead, Kitty.

[Kitty Gordon]

As for Nunavik, first, we're still under the jurisdiction of Quebec, so we don't have a self-government per se, but there are recommendations that have been set forth in the llirijavut report, which was written by Zebedee Nungak and Adamie Kalingo.

In there, they identified recommendations that came out from workshops and the different meetings that were held in the region, so I think it's a matter of having meetings with the youth and the elders and trying to bridge the gap between the two generations and make this attractive for the youth to go to. There are many different activities and workshops that do take place in the communities, but nobody shows up because it doesn't sound interesting, so I think it's also in the way the delivery is done. It's just to attract as much of the youth as we can to get participation.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Do our members appearing via Zoom have any response to that as well?

Go ahead.

[Ed Schultz]

I can't speak for all 24 self-governing indigenous governments. They span from the north to the south and across the country under different provincial and territorial jurisdictions.

I can say from a Yukon context, and I would say as a more boilerplate observation, that at least in my community and in this territory, we firmly believe that we need greater community delivery of programs and services. Centralized systems have been tried for decades and decades, and they do not work well. On the other hand, any community initiatives, although lowly funded, have turned out better results and more sustainable results. I think the model that the SGIGs have now developed with Canada and CIRNAC and Canadian Heritage really deliver the options for unique communities with unique circumstances to develop the community programming necessary to make significant improvements in closing the gap between fluent speakers and a new generation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Zimmer.

We'll go to Ms. Atwin for six minutes.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's nice to see our committee members back after the new year.

Thank you so much, witnesses, for joining us today for such an important discussion.

To start off, I'd like to direct my questions to Commissioner Aariak. Thank you so much for speaking in your language. Please feel free to do that at any time, because one of the great honours of this committee is that we get to have Inuktitut interpretation, which I think is a really bold step in the right direction.

I can't help but think about communities in the riding I represent. Wolastoqey Latuwewakon is extremely threatened. It's a small community of speakers, and very few elders who speak the language are left. I am wondering, in your position and with your experience, what advice you could offer to language keepers and to those who are invested in language revitalization across the country.

[Karliin Aariak]

[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you for welcoming me here.

In Nunavut, when the Inuit Language Protection Act was passed in.... Nunavut became Nunavut in 1999. The language act was passed after that Nunavut Day.

We had a language act that came from the Northwest Territories, from Nunatsiaq. Then we had to develop our own act in Nunavut for Nunavut.

Before I even became a commissioner, I was told to let us not be shy to use our language anymore. Let us not be afraid to use it. Let us keep our language alive. Now those are the very words that are written in that act. That is what makes our language act so unique. The elected members who were political activists in the past had struggled when they were using their language, because Inuktitut was not very much utilized.

In order to keep our language alive, we have to start in the home, in the schools. When we walk, we walk left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. That is the way we can begin to keep and sustain our language and utilize it more. Although the language is strong in Nunavut, our population is diminishing. Many are dying out and many are losing their own heritage. There are many who struggle with their own language. For instance, somebody said that if they went out on the camp, they could go learn their language out on the land. We do that in Nunavut.

There are many dialects. There are many concerns that were brought up, because we're struggling to keep those languages alive. They are our values. We are fighting to keep our language alive. If the elected members are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, we have to bring it to their attention.

There are many types of technologies available. Microsoft came up with something whereby if you write something in English, it can be quickly translated into Inuktitut just by using cell phones and televisions and other forms of technology. There are some in Nunavut now. I hope you will come up and check this unique and amazing device.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

You have 45 seconds.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Qujannamiik.

Just speaking again about the tools, I think the technology piece is really interesting.

I'd love to hear more, Ms. Gordon, about the cultural institute. I think that's a really interesting concept as well. Could you just share a bit about how that's going?

[Kitty Gordon]

The Avataq Cultural Institute is an independent entity that represents our culture. It is there to safeguard our culture and language.

Again, this is an entity that lacks funding. They are limited to what they can do within our communities. There's a dictionary project that's taking place right now. We're in the process of getting it corrected and relooked at. Again, they are limited in what they can do because it is a private entity. It's fairly small. It's very important for our identity and culture, but again, there's always a lack of funding for programs that they want to create.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Ms. Atwin.

Ms. Bérubé, go ahead for six minutes.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

I thank all the witnesses for their presentations.

My constituency is Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. I fully understand Ms. Gordon's explanations concerning language. I went to Aupaluk before the holidays, and I saw a little bit of what is going on there. I actually want to go back in April for a longer visit to my beautiful, large riding in Northern Quebec, to Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik.

My question is primarily for the representatives of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation. I would like to look at the need for adequate and sustainable funding. As this indigenous language study moves forward, we are finding that the people who have come to talk to us, whether they are first nation, Métis or Inuit, need predictability.

Revitalizing a language, promoting it and ensuring its protection is a long-term undertaking. It's hard to do that groundwork. There is no assurance that, at the end of the day, the money won't run out.

You talked in your remarks about a recurring, annual investment of $80 million. That clearly demonstrates that a need exists and that funding is lacking in the area of indigenous languages. You also talked about a need for $995 million over the next decade.

Can you elaborate on the importance of this long-term funding in terms of indigenous language revitalization? What do you think accounts for such a gap in funding?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Go ahead, Mr. Schultz.