Nunavut may soon see a lot on its plate

The Government of Nunavut may soon upgrade its license plates with phrases in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun instead of English. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

The Government of Nunavut is looking at updating its classic polar bear license plates with Inuktitut syllabics and Inuinnaqtun.

The shape of the license plate will remain unchanged, said Peter Taptuna, minister for economic development and transportation, March 16 in the Nunavut legislature.

Taptuna nixed the idea of changing the templates for the license plates to make a statement about the uniqueness of Nunavut, pointing out that most vehicles from Nunavut stay in the territory.

“We all know of our unique culture up here, so it wouldn’t really matter if we have 2,000 vehicles driving around town and if we all know our uniqueness,” said Taptuna, responding to a question asked by Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott.

“I really would have trouble trying to find a way of why we would do that, if only half a dozen vehicles go down south where the exposure is needed the most.”

But Taptuna said there is a plan for putting Inuktitut syllabics and possibly Inuinnaqtun on all new license plates that are going to be coming out.

“That’s in the plans,” he said.

As it stands now, “Explore Canada’s Arctic,” which was inherited from the Northwest Territories, is the phrase used on all Nunavut license plates,.

“The only difference is if you have a license plate in the Northwest Territories, it says “Northwest Territories and if you have a license plate from Nunavut, it says “Nunavut,” Elliott noted.