Nunavut MLAs will soon launch a search for a new Nunavut languages commissioner, following the recent resignation of Helen Klengenberg from the position. Klengenberg had served as languages commissioner since June 2017. (File photo)
MLAs to launch search for new Nunavut languages commissioner
Helen Klengenberg resigns for health reasons
Nunavut MLAs will soon launch a search for a new languages commissioner, following the recent resignation of Helen Klengenberg from the position.
Klengenberg, who has served as Nunavut’s languages commissioner since June 2017, resigned recently for health reasons.
Because the languages commissioner is an officer of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut and reports directly to the assembly, it’s now up to MLAs to recruit Klengenberg’s successor.
They’ll do that through their management and services board, which is a committee of MLAs that looks after the assembly’s administrative affairs, Speaker Simeon Mikkungwak said in a short statement this past Sept. 17.
“I anticipate that the management and services board will begin its recruitment process for this position in the near future and will make announcements as required with respect to an acting appointment,” Mikkungwak said.
The languages commissioner’s job, according to a mandate described in the Official Languages Act, is to act as a language rights watchdog in Nunavut.
Klengenberg’s appointment in 2017 came after a lengthy search that took about a year, following the abrupt resignation of Sandra Inutiq in June of 2016.
Inutiq quit the position only about a month after submitting a report on the Qikiqtani General Hospital that found the hospital had no language policy and offered poor services to Inuktitut- and French-speaking patients.
She also said it took the deputy minister of health more than a year to supply some files required for her investigation.
After that, MLAs advertised the position three times before they were able to recruit Klengenberg.
In 2017, the languages commissioner job paid an annual salary ranging from $119,000 to $170,000 a year, with a northern allowance of $15,016 per year, 25 days a year of paid holidays and various other benefits.
The swingin’ door keeps on a swingin’
Does it come with a butler and chauffeur ?
The last two Language Commissioners have resigned for the same reasons. The Legislative Assembly should probably do a review of what it is that makes their commissioners resign before their terms are up. All they seem to have done and my apologies for my ignorance if they have done other things, is to try to keep recruiting new staff without looking at the causes for the situation they find themselves in. Why can’t they retain their Commissioners? Like the story here, the Language Commissioner reports directly to the Legislative Assembly, independent of the GN. The Inuktitut language is very important for Inuit identity. It should be the least of the worries for the Legislative Assembly!
What are the reasons they resigned?
I find it necessary to clarify the reasons for my leaving the post of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut. My leaving has nothing to do with the job or the Legislative Assembly. I left because I have back problems, a compound fracture on a vertebra, degenerative discs, and arthritis in my back is the reason for my leaving. The reasons of the previous Languages Commissioner and mine are not the same, other then for health reasons.
Uqauhihailiukparunaqtut ilihinahuaktinatik.