OTTAWA –
The federal authorities says it would not know how many of its employees are anticipated to speak an Indigenous language as half of their job.
Ottawa has been dealing with calls to develop the compensation it affords to employees who speak each French and English to public servants who speak an Indigenous language.
The bilingualism bonus is an further $800 per yr employees obtain in the event that they work able the place it is required they speak each of Canada’s official languages.
Some senior public servants have instructed the federal government introduce related pay for Indigenous-language audio system however the federal Treasury Board has rejected the thought. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has additionally proposed the creation of an Indigenous language allowance.
In a response to a query it from the federal New Democrats this fall, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says “there is no public service-wide data” about how many employees are anticipated to speak an Indigenous language as half of their day by day tasks.
“It points to the fact that providing Indigenous Peoples with services in their language is not a priority for the federal government,” stated Nunavut New Democrat MP Lori Idlout, who speaks Inuktitut.
“With that being the case, it means that maybe reconciliation is not as important as they say and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure that reconciliation is realized.”
The Treasury Board has not but responded to a request for remark.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made advancing reconciliation with Indigenous individuals a serious precedence for his authorities, and specified it will work to protect and promote the use of Indigenous languages.
The Liberals handed laws with the acknowledged objective of doing so again in 2019.
The legislation acknowledged governments bear duty for suppressing and attempting to eradicate Indigenous languages by insurance policies like forcing kids to attend residential faculties, the place they weren’t allowed to speak their mom tongue.
According to the laws, federal establishments might present entry to companies in Indigenous languages “if the institution has the capacity to do so and there is sufficient demand for access to those services in that language.”
Kevin Lewis, a Cree instructor based mostly in Saskatchewan, stated he solely lately discovered the bilingualism bonus existed, and he believes the federal authorities could be clever to increase it to Indigenous-language audio system.
Doing so may promote employment alternatives, he stated, and incentivize those that are non-Indigenous to attempt to be taught one.
“The government apologizes and they have been apologizing, an apology is usually followed up by action.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Oct. 13, 2022.