Single window for French services in Nunavut?

The Francophone Association of Nunavut wants to work with government to improve French-language services

By JANE GEORGE

The government of Nunavut isn’t able to provide services to its French-speaking population.

But the Francophone Association of Nunavut, l’Association des francophones du Nunavut, is proposing what it says is a cost-effective solution to the government’s problem: a “single-window” approach that would provide access to territorial government services in French.

“It’s a win-win solution in every way for both the francophone community and the Nunavut government. The Nunavut government is mainly concerned with promoting Inuktitut. We understand that very well and respect this, but even so, it’s important to acknowledge there are francophones in Nunavut and they have the right to services,” said Daniel Cuerrier, executive director of Nunavut’s francophone association.

The recent annual report of Nunavut’s official languages commissioner confirmed the weak state of French-language services in Nunavut.

The report, tabled last month by Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s language commissioner, says that it doesn’t offer even basic services in French to francophone residents.

“As it stands now, the federal government gives [Nunavut] $1.4 million, but this $1.4 million isn’t spent by the Nunavut government because it can’t offer services in French,” Cuerrier said.

In his opinion, the single-window approach will be able to “take a thorn out of the Nunavut government’s foot.” At present, the Nunavut government actually has to return hundreds of thousands of dollars to the federal government for services it can’t provide to francophones.

But if the Nunavut government can start fufilling its obligations to the French-speaking community, then, according to Aariak, its credibility will go up – especially with respect to its capacity to also provide services in Inuktitut.

The single-window approach would see the Francophone Association of Nunavut, which represents 600 francophones in Iqaluit and 300 in other communities, take over responsibility for delivering services in French, from interpretation in the courts and the legislative assembly to the translation of documents.

“The plan is to supply services, depending on the need. Through the single-window approach, we could also have displays, with documents available in French,” Cuerrier said.

Nunavut doesn’t now produce much documentation in French.

“In its communication with the public, there’s no French-language material. There’s really nothing. Anything destined for the public should be translated into French,” Cuerrier said.

In addition, the association would like to establish links within government departments to ensure there is at least one person within each department to answer questions in French.

A toll-free telephone line is also part of the single-window proposal.

“It’s very do-able,” Cuerrier said. “It could be eased in over three of four years. It’s do-able because it would require a minimal amount of human and financial resources. It’s part of the federal government’s budget so it wouldn’t penalize the Nunavut government’s operations because its costs would all be covered by Ottawa.”

The proposal could be done very quickly, Cuerrier said, if the Nunavut government were to embrace it.

“We could start on it almost tomorrow.” he said.

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