Nunavut government launches new French-language phone line

Ecole des Trois-Soleils serves francophone children in Iqaluit. Now there’s a new telephone number that French-speakers can call to access services in French: 867-975-5544. (FILE PHOTO)

If you’re a French-speaker in Nunavut, you now have a direct telephone line to territorial government services.

The Government of Nunavut launched its French-language services telephone line April 12.

The line, operated by the Department of Culture and Heritage in partnership with other territorial departments and government agencies, gives francophones in Nunavut a first point of contact with the government.

“This phone line is a way for us to give information to the people of the francophone community, and also to give referral services,” said Mylène Bellerose, program officer for French services with the department.

The number, 867-975-5544, connects callers with French-speaking agents who will find other contacts needed for any particular service offered by the government, be it in employment, education, or health care.

“We don’t actually give any services with that phone line, but it’s a way for us to connect with the francophone community, so it’s a bit easier that calling any [government service] number directly and just trying to get French service,” Bellerose said.

Meanwhile, “every department will be working towards better services in all official languages,” she said. “Guidelines will be made for departments related to communication.”

“This initiative marks an important first step towards improving the effective and efficient delivery of government French-language services in Nunavut,” Nunavut’s languages minister, James Arreak, said in a recent GN news release.

The launch of the telephone line follows the Nunavut Official Languages Act, which came into effect April 1, which establishes that Nunavut has three official languages: Inuktut (Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun), English and French.

The act finally brings Nunavut out of the Northwest Territories Languages Act of 1988, which stayed in force when Nunavut became a separate territory in 1999. The old act recognized nine official languages, only three of which — Inuktitut, English and French — were actually spoken in Nunavut.

The old act didn’t really reflect “our reality,” Bellerose said. Then, the funding for French “wouldn’t be really coordinated and was without a long-term vision.”

In addition to the Nunavut act, the Uqausivut plan maps out some guidelines on how language policy will be implemented in the territory.

The francophone service line is a first step to putting Nunavut’s language act to work for French-speakers, Bellerose said.

“We’re now giving more power and substance to things that were already made,” she said.

Nunavut had 435 residents who spoke French as their first language in 2011, according to Statistics Canada, and 285 of these lived in Iqaluit. Nunavut counted 40 residents who spoke French only that year.