Nunavut MLAs name Sandra Inutiq as next languages commissioner

Sandra Inutiq will start work as acting languages commissioner Jan. 14 and will likely be installed permanently after the legislative assembly reconvenes Feb. 26. (FILE PHOTO)

Following a short stint as executive director of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, Sandra Inutiq of Iqaluit will now serve as Nunavut’s next languages commissioner.

The Nunavut legislative assembly announced the appointment Dec. 10.

Inutiq will begin serving as acting languages commissioner Jan. 14. After the assembly reconvenes Feb. 26, MLAs will vote on a motion to have her installed as the permanent languages commissioner.

She succeeds Alexina Kublu, who retired from the position this past Sept. 28.

A legislative assembly news release said the legislature’s management and services board, a group of MLAs chaired by the speaker, selected Inutiq after a job competition.

The languages commissioner is an officer of the legislative assembly and reports directly to MLAs, not the Government of Nunavut.

“On behalf of the management and services board, I am very pleased to welcome Ms. Inutiq back to the Office of the Languages Commissioner in her new capacity,” speaker Hunter Tootoo said in a news release.

Inutiq was appointed executive director of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council this past June, replacing Shyla Elliot.

Before that, Inutiq worked as director of policy for the language commission.

She’s a graduate of the Akitsiraq law program and a member of the Nunavut bar.