Nunavut standing committee extends deadline for Bill 25 submissions

Committee will accept submissions until Oct. 11 at 5 p.m.

John Main, chair of the standing committee on legislation, says the committee will extend the period for public submissions on Bill 25 and the committee’s review period of the bill. (File photo)

By Emma Tranter

The Nunavut legislature’s standing committee on legislation will continue to accept submissions from the public on Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act and Inuit Language Protection Act, until Oct. 11.

The original deadline for submissions was Sept. 13.

“My colleagues and I wish to express our appreciation to Nunavummiut who have taken the time to share their views on this important bill,” committee chair John Main said today in a news release.

The public was invited to make submissions to the committee after Bill 25 was introduced during the legislative assembly’s spring sitting in June. It passed through second reading and was sent to the committee for review.

The committee met last week to review the bill, along with submissions made by the public.

The committee also announced it will extend its review of Bill 25 during the upcoming fall sitting to allow for televised hearings for two weeks at the end of November.

“The minister of education and invited witnesses will appear before the standing committee at the hearings, which will provide Nunavummiut across the territory with the opportunity to observe our deliberations,” Main said in the news release.

Bill 25 calls for a phased implementation, over a 20-year period, of Inuktut as a language of instruction throughout school programs from kindergarten to Grade 12.

At the same time, the bill would bring the Inuit Language Protection Act into harmony with the Education Act, and extend the deadline for implementation of bilingual education for
Grades 4 to 12 on a phased-in schedule that ends on July 1, 2039

A detailed list of witnesses and a schedule for the committee’s hearings will be provided at a later date, the release said.

The legislative assembly will reconvene for its fall sitting Oct. 17.

Submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Oct 11. All submissions will be made public when they are tabled in the assembly during the fall sitting.

Submissions can be made to:

John Main, MLA
Chair, Standing Committee on Legislation
Legislative Assembly of Nunavut
P.O. Box 1200
Iqaluit, NU
X0A 0H0
Tel: (867) 975-5000
Fax: (867) 975-5191
Email: submissions@assembly.nu.ca

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(10) Comments:

  1. Posted by Raven on

    The current 20 year implementation approach will finally phase out the language.

    The current plan appears not too different as the previously defeated bill 37 from the last crop of MLAs.

    The department has never had a capable DM. It shows in all the educational performance of Nunavut students since 1999.

  2. Posted by Garbage Alert on

    Silly quote: “The department has never had a capable DM. It shows in all the educational performance of Nunavut students since 1999.”

    Why is the DM solely responsible for the performance of Nunavut students since 1999?

    Maybe all the parents who refuse to send their kids to school have something to do with it? Maybe all those spoiled NTEP grads who quit after being trained at great expense have something to do with it? Maybe all the social problems in the communities like alcohol abuse and lack of housing have something to do with it? Maybe all the sexual abuse in the communities has something to do with it? Maybe all the unqualified uneducated DEA members have something to with it?

    Truth be told, most of the senior managers of education in Nunavut have been more than capable. It is the people of Nunavut who have failed their own children.

    By the way, the proposed plan will not phase out the language. It will phase in the language. As soon as they find people who are willing and able to teach subjects in the Inuktut language, they will phase the language into the schools.

    But this is the big problem, nobody is willing or able to teach the Inuktut language in schools, including all these decolonista types who crap on the department but don’t lift a finger to encourage anybody to become a teacher. These people cannot even be bothered to volunteer once in a while to help kids learn Inuktut, that’s how hypocritical they are.

    • Posted by Raven on

      You are defending one of the most underperforming departments. Each year the department produces tracked results that do not improve year after year.

  3. Posted by mobilization on

    I’m sure the vast majority of the submissions will be against the bill even though the majority of Nunavummiut understand the current situation. People just assume this bill will pass.

    Kudos to NTI and their gang for mobilizing their base and flooding the submissions box again. They would rather see the GN burn than propose achievable measures.

    • Posted by iThink on

      Free from all performance obligations, organizations like NTI enjoy the luxury and privilege to endlessly pontificate, bather self righteously, and engage in the most histrionic of grandstanding. None of this is to say they don’t care, that would be disingenuous, but it’s true that it is much easier to whip up the plebes through emotional argumentation than it is to come up with ideas that actually work.

      • Posted by Raven on

        As you’ve pointed out NTI is not a delivery agent. They’re not part of the underperforming education department.

        You do not need to go beyond the department heads to illustrate the consequences of under performance.

  4. Posted by Raven on

    Question for Federal candidates:

    How do you propose to help close the educational gap from the house of commons in Nunavut?

    • Posted by iWonder on

      Good question. Imagining they were receptive to it, what advice would you offer on this issue?

  5. Posted by Theresa James on

    The DM needs to be on top of things. Too much “curry favour” in the education system. When a teacher is dismissed under the disguise of the “dismissed without cause” clause under the two year probation, more needs to be done by the NTA to find out why. Some teachers are dismissed not because they cannot do the job, but because they are too smart and more intelligent than their superiors or bosses. Take for example, teachers with Masters and sometimes a PhD in Education are “dismissed without cause” and are replaced by teachers with or without a university degree, and sometimes with only a high school diploma on Letter of Authority. The “dismissed without cause” is being abused. Why give positions to people who do not have the qualifications or experience to do the job? DM needs to do more.

    • Posted by Petty Worlds and their Tyrants on

      Ah the small kingdoms that surround us, petty and jealous and so often ruled by the fearful and insecure. There is nothing more dangerous here than competence that exceeds your superiors. Or worse yet, a tongue that points out truths long hidden from ourselves.

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