Every fiscal year, the Government of the Northwest Territories issues a record of measures taken to implement the Official Languages Act. Each report details developments in both French and Aboriginal language programming. Many programs focus on connecting youth with elders, training teachers, developing curriculum, and providing government services in as many languages as possible.

One excerpt from the 2007 report:

“In September 2003, the Minister Responsible for Official Languages tabled the GNWT’s Response to the Final Report of the Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act. This document addressed, in detail, each recommendation and laid out a course of action over several years. In 2006-2007, a number of these actions were undertaken to further improve GNWT’s ongoing language programs and services.” (4)

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The Government of the Northwest Territories makes reports from the last decade available here: https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/en/services/francophone-affairs-secretariat/official-languages-annual-reports

Government of the Northwest Territories. Annual Report on Official Languages. Yellowknife: 2007. 

This paper uses data from 2001 and previous to present trends in Aboriginal Language use in Canada, namely, an overall drop in conversational ability, a decline in mother tongue population, and a rise in second language acquisition for Aboriginal languages. Additional findings (again, representing Canada but not necessarily smaller populations) include the fact that second language speakers are often younger community members rather than mother tongue population speakers.

For 2001, Norris lists the “North Slave (Hare)” total population as 1,030, with 165 second language speakers. For all speakers under the age of 25, 27% were Dene as a second language speakers – a proportion higher than that of any other age group. Norris identifies a few language groups which are growing due to second language acquisition, such as some Salish languages. While speakers may still be learning North Slavey, Norris labels the language definitively endangered. One sign of endangered language status, according to Norris, is a young population with a growing proportion of second language speakers over mother tongue speakers.

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Read the full report from Statistics Canada.

Norris, Mary Jane. “Aboriginal languages in Canada: Emerging trends and perspectives on second language acquisition.”Aboriginal languages in Canada: Emerging trends and perspectives on second language acquisition.” Canadian Social Trends. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-008 (2007): 19-28.

This evaluation of Language Nests in the Northwest Territories is a detailed overview of the Indigenous language immersion programs that were folded into pre-existing licensed day cares and Head Start facilities beginning in 2003. The evaluation process had two steps: first, a workshop with language nest staff from all 18 nest sites (which included at least one from representative from each NWT language region). This was meant to introduce the staff to the purpose of evaluation and incorporate their feedback into the evaluation framework, which covered both process/program delivery and outcome/language acquisition.

The authors identify numerous strengths of the language nest program, primarily surrounding increased awareness of language and culture for participants and communities, willingness to pursue learning, and intergenerational transmission. Children, parents, elders, staff, and communities interacted positively and productively with the language nest program. The programs also encountered challenges, namely: a lack of central administrative support, staffing and turnover, unavailability of training, no core or multi-year funding, incomplete immersion, no curriculum, parental concerns about bilingualism confusing their children, and no evaluative standards. The Language Nest evaluation made numerous recommendations to help mitigate these concerns. At least two nests existed in the Sahtú region, including one in Délı̨nę and one in Fort Good Hope.

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This report is not currently publically available. 

Hume, Sharon, Deborah Rutman, and Carol Hubberstey. Language Nest Evaluation Report. Department of Education, Culture and Employment: Yellowknife, 2006.

As a part of the Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures project, established in 2002 by the then Minister of Canadian Heritage, APTN was asked to prepare an analysis of the role of Aboriginal language broadcasting in Aboriginal language revitalization across Canada. The Final Report highlights the importance of broadcasting to Aboriginal survival, though they argue it is underutilized; the need for legislation to protect Aboriginal language broadcasting; the need for more resources for broadcasting research and development; and the importance of involving youth broadcasters and speakers. It also comments on the importance of broadcast programming as a resource for archival materials. The authors suggest that a national association and conference program would be useful to allow broadcasters to meet, share resources, and address common issues.

The Northern Native Broadcast Access Program (NNBAP) funded some surveys in the 1980s that suggested that language programming had a positive impact on language retention: however, results were not quantitatively conclusive and there has not been funding available to conduct similar (or follow-up) studies since.

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Full text available online.

David, Jennifer and Debwe Communications Inc. Aboriginal Language Broadcasting in Canada: An overview and recommendations to the Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures. Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, November 26, 2004.

In 2000, the Governments of the NWT and of Canada enacted the five-year Cooperation Agreement for French and Aboriginal Languages in the NWT. This agreement extended federal support to official Aboriginal languages in the NWT as well as French, with $4.35M going directly to Aboriginal communities over five years, and financial support for GNWT language services as well. The independent consultants who authored this report were hired in 2003 in order to evaluate the Agreement’s implementation, operations, progress, strengths, challenges, and recommend changes. The evaluation team conducted a literature review, key informant interviews, focus groups, and case study evaluations.

The evaluators made several practical recommendations following their investigation.
Fist, local leadership must play a role in making sure a project meets community needs and is receiving community support; second, local in-kind contributions and volunteerism must be encouraged to supplement local projects; third, activities must be engaging and locally relevant; and fourth, projects need stable government support, simplified application processes, and equitable treatment to succeed. Overall, the evaluators found that the agreement was well-liked and generally well administered, but needed to emphasize coordination between all levels of government, families, and community leadership. While language coordinators were generally well aware of the agreement and its funding implications, this awareness did not typically extend to the rest of a community or region.

Read the original agreement: https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/sites/ece/files/resources/nwt_agreement_2016-2020.pdf

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Terriplan Consultants and Martin Spigelman Research. Canada-NWT Cooperation Agreement for French and Aboriginal Languages in the Northwest Territories, Final Evaluation Report. Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and Canadian Heritage, March 2004.

This document contains the minutes of a 2001 advisory board meeting, including remarks from Glenna Hansen (Commissioner of the Northwest Territories), Fibbie Tatti, Bill Erasmus, Elder Elizabeth Mackenzie, and a closing prayer by Andy Norwegian. The first section of the report covers language updates from each Official Language region. The second addresses Advisory Board discussions and recommendations for amendments to the OLA.

The advisory board concludes that the OLA lacks an Aboriginal Language Perspective and assigns lower status to Aboriginal Languages. They recommend that the Office of the Languages Commissioner should have expanded roles and responsibilities including extensive research, monitoring, evaluation, coordination, and planning. In addition, they comment on numerous other aspects of the act. Recommendations include: that language rights not be based on population size; that the Act apply to community governments and the private sector and be enforceable as such; that information about the act, and translated government information, be more widely developed and made accessible; and other important items.

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This document has been archived by the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment.

Office of the Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories [Fibbie Tatti]. Advisory Board Meeting October 23 & 24, 2001. Tabled Document, Yellowknife, 2002.

This report describes the status of Aboriginal languages in the NWT, before addressing the complex question of literacy as functional or “school” based. Its thesis is that in a changing world, multiple types of literacy are needed to navigate life in the Northwest Territories, taught both through formal education and through cultural literacy modeling by elders and parents. The authors encourage NWT communities to create and apply their own models to teach literacy, develop culturally appropriate materials, and seek the council’s support in areas where it can be most useful. To achieve this, they consulted with language coordinators and positioned themselves as a place for researching and sharing literacy models and practices.

From Introduction: 

The NWT Literacy Council has supported literacy development in all official languages since 1989. Most of our work focuses on English literacy, but we have also supported Aboriginal literacy directly. We know that people in the Aboriginal language communities believe it is important and urgent to maintain, revitalize and promote Aboriginal languages and literacy, and so we feel it is time for us as a literacy organization to try to improve our support in this area.

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This report is available on the NWT Literacy Council website. 

Northwest Territories Literacy Council. Multiple Literacies: Improving our support for Aboriginal literacy in the NWT. Yellowknife, March 2002.

Steven Nitah, MLA, was Chair of the Special Committee on the Review of the OLA, which also included David Krutko, Roger T. Allen, Brendan Bell, and Michael McLeod.

The guiding questions of the Special Committee were: Do people understand the OLA; is the Act working to protect and preserve all of the official languages; are the needs of all of the OLs being met; what can be done to improve the Act?; and, what can be done to improve the delivery of language programs and services in the NWT? (4)

At the time of writing, the committee was still working and intended to publish a follow-up final report. The interim report goes over some general points about language revitalization, language history in the NWT, and the condition of NWT languages today. They suggest several directions for change and improvement, including greater accountability, a stronger role for the Languages Commissioner, curriculum development, teacher training, evaluation, improved funding, community support, and improved I/T training and services. They also suggest that the GWNT “make one government body or agency accountable for the Act” (8), to prevent diffusion of responsibility.

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Read this report on the Canadian Parliamentary Review website.

Nitah, Steven. “One Land—Many Voices: Report of the NWT Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act.” Canadian Parliamentary Review Autumn 2002 (2002): 4-9.

This article presents some of the linguistic and sociolinguistic considerations that went along with the standardization of Dene languages. Rice and Saxon compare the experiences they had working with three Athabaskan languages: Tłı̨chǫ, Dene Kedǝ, and Kaska.

Abstract:

"It is often assumed that dictionaries for languages such as English define what a dictionary should be. Using case studies, we argue that a dictionary must be defined in relation to the expected group of users of that dictionary. We consider the issue of standardization in particular, examining decisions made with respect to the standardization of spellings in three dictionary projects for northern Athabaskan languages, Dogrib, Slave, and Kaska. We show that adopting preconceived assumptions about standardization of spellings easily leads to problems within a community in developing a dictionary, and that as work on a dictionary proceeds, initial assumptions can and perhaps should change so as not to limit the scope of the dictionary. When dictionaries originate within the community in which they will be used, very different decisions about standardization can arise than when they are guided by external lexicographical principles. We argue that standardization of spellings must be carefully considered, and is not always the best choice."

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Read this paper open access on the Alaska Native Language Archive website.

Rice, Keren and Leslie Saxon. “Issues of standardization and community in Aboriginal languages lexicography.”  In Making Dictionaries, edited by William Frawley, Kenneth Hill, and Pamela Munro, 125-154. Berkely, CA: University of California Press, 2002.

In the letter introducing the report, Tutcho comments that the impetus for this report was the privatization of the Aboriginal Language Section of the Language Bureau in 1996 (since its creation in 1973). She notes that Privatization is also known as Devolution.

Concerns:
• Contractors have no legal obligation to perform services at the same level as the OLA, only the GNWT needs to comply.
• Langue commissioner has no jurisdiction over contractors.
• Lack of funding
• Use of unqualified I/Ts. Contractor may provide less well-trained personnel.
• Decrease in some services, increase in their cost.

Recommendations:
• Amend the OLA to bind “agencies, boards, or contractors of the government” just as other legislation such as the Financial Admin Act does. The Federal OLA already has this amendment. (16)
• Add commitment to OLA into contracts explicitly. (16)
• The LC needs to be able to monitor the impact of privatization—right now it has now jurisdiction over contractors, but an OLA amendment would solve this problem. (17)
• Consider developing a certification process for I/Ts that standardizes quality of service.
• Have a registry of I/Ts
• Consider developing more language and I/T materials
• Consider a professional association, professional development, funding, etc.

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This report has been archived by the GNWT department of Education, Culture, and Employment. 

Office of the Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories [Judi Tutcho]. Special Report on Privatization and Language Services. Yellowknife, 2000.