[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” admin_label=”Main Header” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ background_color=”#233b4e” parallax=”on” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px”][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”Inuktut at a crossroads” subhead=”Inuit in Canada are in a race against time to save their language ” header_fullscreen=”on” background_overlay_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” content_orientation=”bottom” content_max_width=”700px” admin_label=”Header” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ title_font=”Oswald|on||on|” title_font_size=”75px” title_line_height=”1.1em” title_text_shadow_style=”preset2″ content_font=”Roboto||||” content_font_size=”20px” content_line_height=”1.7em” content_text_shadow_style=”preset2″ subhead_font=”Roboto||||||||” subhead_font_size=”28px” subhead_line_height=”1.2em” subhead_text_shadow_style=”preset2″ background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” background_image=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/inuktutcrossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2019\/04\/stop-sign.jpg” custom_button_one=”on” button_one_border_radius=”0px” button_one_letter_spacing=”4px” button_one_font=”Oswald|on||on|” button_one_icon=”%%3%%” button_one_icon_color=”#ffffff” custom_margin=”0px||” child_filter_contrast=”95%” animation_style=”zoom” animation_direction=”bottom” animation_intensity_zoom=”4%” z_index_tablet=”500″ text_shadow_style=”preset2″ custom_css_subtitle=”width: 500px;” button_one_text_color_hover=”#ffffff” button_one_border_color_hover=”#ffffff” button_one_border_radius_hover=”0px” button_one_letter_spacing_hover=”4px” button_one_bg_color_hover=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”on” button_one_text_color__hover=”#ffffff” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”on” button_one_border_color__hover=”#ffffff” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”on” button_one_border_radius__hover=”0px” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”on” button_one_letter_spacing__hover=”4px” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”on” button_one_bg_color__hover=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off”]<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n Inuktut Aqquti Akulliriik<\/span><\/p>\n \u1403\u14c4\u1483\u1450\u1466<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u140a\u1585\u146f\u144e\u00a0<\/span>\u140a\u146f\u14ea\u14d5\u1547\u1483<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section1″ module_id=”section1″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_padding=”50px||100px||false|false” z_index_tablet=”500″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”27px|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”15px”]<\/p>\n By Kassina Ryder Davidson<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Discover Beatuty Sub Title” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto||||” text_text_color=”#1a1a1a” text_font_size=”24px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”32px||” animation_direction=”top” z_index_tablet=”500″]<\/p>\n A blizzard delayed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s arrival in Iqaluit in early March.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#ed4441″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”3px” disabled_on=”off|off|off” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ max_width=”150px” height=”false” animation_direction=”top”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Discover Beatuty Text” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” header_font=”||||||||” custom_padding=”30px|||” animation_direction=”top”]<\/p>\n For a group of Inuit gathered at the Frobisher Inn in Nunavut\u2019s capital, it was just one more day added to a lifetime of waiting for an apology they hoped would close wounds that time hasn\u2019t healed.<\/p>\n As he made his way through the packed conference room, Trudeau paused to shake hands with many of those in attendance before taking his place at the podium.<\/p>\n \u201cUllaakkut,\u201d he said in Inuktitut, meaning \u201cGood morning.\u201d It was a respectful nod to the main local language before the prime minister delivered his official apology. Trudeau was there to acknowledge the horrifying way the federal government treated Inuit stricken with tuberculosis from the 1940s to the 1960s.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/inuktutcrossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2019\/04\/20190308_pg1_12_0.jpg” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_margin=”90px|||” animation_direction=”right” animation=”fade_in”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” header_font=”||||||||” custom_margin=”-20px||”]<\/p>\n Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on March 8, 2019 for the devastating impact of government policies on Inuit families during Canada’s tuberculosis epidemic from the 1940s to the 1960s. To this day, many Inuit don’t know what happened to their loved ones after they were sent south for treatment. [Photo courtesy of Adam Scotti, PMO]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”27px|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/inuktutcrossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2019\/04\/fullsizeoutput_1491.jpeg” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_margin=”|||” animation_direction=”left” animation=”fade_in”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” custom_margin=”-20px||”]<\/p>\n A cross stands in the Iqaluit’s original graveyard near Koojesse Inlet in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Though Inuktut is the language of the majority of the population, it is not the language of public services, such as health care. A lack of Inuktut in health care and police services are believed to be factors in three recent deaths in the territory. \u00a0[Photo \u00a9 Kassina Ryder Davidson]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||”]<\/p>\n By 1956, an estimated one-seventh of the country\u2019s Inuit population was in southern Canada being treated for TB. Many never came back. The families of those who succumbed to the lung infection were often never told that their loved ones were dead, let alone where they were buried.<\/p>\n Trudeau\u2019s March 8 apology was unquestionably an historic day for Inuit, yet his words also betrayed an enduring linguistic inequality that Inuit not only experienced in the past, but continue to face today.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout their consent, Inuit were screened,\u201d Trudeau told the crowd. \u201cAnyone thought to have TB was sent south to cities like Hamilton and Edmonton, for months or years of treatment in a sanatorium where almost no one spoke Inuktut.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInuktut\u201d is the term for the family of Inuit languages in Canada; the Inuktitut dialect is generally spoken in Iqaluit. Trudeau\u2019s simple act of voicing an Indigenous greeting commonly heard in the territory was a meaningful gesture \u2014 but also a reminder of the historical discrimination and neglect that has left the Inuit language in a such a fragile state today.<\/p>\n In fact, much of the prime minister\u2019s apology focused on the absence of the Inuit language in the health care system decades ago. But the situation he described as a wrong of the past has persisted into the present. The same cultural disconnect happens every time Inuit require health care today in Nunavut, where few frontline health care workers speak Inuktut.<\/p>\n \u00a0The year 2019 is the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages. But you wouldn’t know it in Inuit Nunangat, the collective term for Inuit regions in Canada. Here, the fight for Inuktut has been quietly waged for decades, and victory seems as elusive as ever.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/inuktutcrossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2019\/05\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-02-at-9.54.38-AM.png” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_margin=”110px||”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” text_line_height=”1.6em” custom_margin=”-7px||” custom_padding=”0px||”]<\/p>\n Note: The size of each dialect name is intended to provide a rough estimate of the number of speakers, but is not an exhaustive list of dialects in Inuit Nunangat. Data source: Inuktut Tusaalanga.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Top Destination Text” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” custom_padding=”||60px|” animation_direction=”top” locked=”off”]<\/p>\n Without urgent action and adequate financial support, the battle will inevitably be lost. The rate of language decline in the Inuit population, currently about one per cent per year in Nunavut, is at risk of accelerating in the coming decades until there are no Inuktut speakers left to keep it alive.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s still time to turn things around, advocates say. Together, Inuit throughout Canada are pushing back against the federal government\u2019s long and ongoing record of failed support for their cherished language.<\/p>\n This is a story of tragedy, dedication and hope, one that has been unfolding in disparate locales across great spans of time. For untold thousands of years until about a century ago, all Inuit living across Canada\u2019s North \u2014 as well as their ethno-cultural cousins in Greenland, Alaska and Siberia \u2014 were unilingual speakers of one of a handful of ancient \u201cEskimo-Aleut\u201d languages with many regional variations. But since the era of continuous contact with European newcomers began about 100 years ago in Canada, Inuktut has been under unrelenting threat. Today, it faces a full-blown crisis.<\/p>\n The scenes that illuminate Inuktut\u2019s struggle to survive range from the UN headquarters in New York, where an Inuk leader recently made history by addressing the world in her native tongue; to Greenland, which has witnessed the remarkable renaissance of a sister language called Kalaallisut; to Iqaluit, where a tuberculosis patient\u2019s senseless death \u2014 in 2015, not 1955 \u2014 has been linked to a lack of Inuit-language health services.<\/p>\n The fight for Inuktut is about more than preserving heritage and strengthening cultural connections. For Inuit in Canada, it can be a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_countdown_timer title=”At current rates of decline, by the year 2051 only four per cent of Nunavut households will include people who speak Inuktut” date_time=”2051-04-01 00:00″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ header_font=”Roboto||||||||” numbers_font=”Roboto||||||||” label_font=”Roboto||||||||”][\/et_pb_countdown_timer][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section2″ module_id=”section2″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ background_color=”#f9f9f9″ custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” z_index_tablet=”500″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”27px|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21″ header_font=”Roboto|300||on|||||” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_6_font=”||||||||”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/t5B5lRmwdh8″ _builder_version=”3.21″ custom_padding=”35px||”][\/et_pb_video][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” custom_margin=”-20px||”]<\/p>\n Aluki Kotierk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., discusses her objection to the term “preserve” when talking about Indigenous people and language. [Video by Kassina Ryder Davidson]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/inuktutcrossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2019\/05\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-02-at-10.05.38-AM.png” _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_margin=”0px||” custom_padding=”172px|||||”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” header_font=”||||||||”]<\/p>\n Aluki Kotierk is the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. \u2014 the organization responsible for legally representing Inuit in Nunavut \u2014 and a crucial voice in the ongoing fight for Inuit language rights. Kotierk, an Inuktut-speaker originally from the central Nunavut community of Iglulik, is especially outspoken about the potentially deadly consequences of living in a territory where health care workers don\u2019t speak the language of the people.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it creates a dangerous life-and-death situation for unilingual Inuktut speakers who are unable to access essential health care services,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are kind of disabled in their own homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n The risky situation Kotierk describes is no exaggeration. In 2015, Iqaluit elder Annie Kootoo died after the drugs she was taking to treat her tuberculosis caused liver failure. For more than a month, she had complained to health care workers in Iqaluit about worsening symptoms, but the signs of trouble were ignored until her condition became so dire that she was airlifted to the Ottawa General Hospital. She died four days later.<\/p>\n Kootoo\u2019s family immediately spoke out about how they believed having Inuktut-speaking health care workers could have saved her life. Providing information in Inuktitut about the potential complications of her TB medication topped the list of recommendations in a coroner\u2019s report investigating the neglect and oversights that led to Kootoo\u2019s death. The second recommendation included providing patients and family members with written instructions in English and Inuktut.\u00a0<\/p>\n The sick aren\u2019t the only ones at risk when essential services can\u2019t be provided in Inuktut. In March, the family of 20-year-old Kunuk Qamaniq launched a lawsuit against the RCMP after he was shot and killed by police in Pond Inlet, a community about 1,000 km north of Iqaluit on the northern tip of Baffin Island. His family argues that Qamaniq\u2019s death was partly the result of the RCMP\u2019s neglect to recruit Inuktut-speaking officers. As of last July, there were only four Inuit RCMP officers and one Inuit Special Constable in all of Nunavut, which encompasses an area three times the size of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n A lack of Inuktut-speaking employees was also highlighted in a 2018 Senate report on Nunavut\u2019s search-and-rescue operations. The report,<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|27px|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||”]<\/p>\n titled When Every Minute Counts<\/em>, found that none of the staff at the federal Marine Communications and Traffic Services office in Iqaluit could speak Inuktut, which meant anyone making an emergency search-and-rescue call had to speak either English or French.<\/p>\n Even fundamental doctor-patient confidentiality is constantly undermined in Nunavut, where unilingual Inuktut speakers require friends or family members to interpret during medical appointments. In 2016, the territorial Office of the Languages Commissioner investigated Iqaluit\u2019s Qikiqtani Regional Hospital and found that the hospital\u2019s interpreters weren\u2019t being trained in medical terminology and were frequently unavailable. In some cases, staff had to ask other Inuktut-speaking patients \u2014 often complete strangers \u2014 to provide interpretation for individuals who didn\u2019t have a friend or family member with them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we need to do,\u201d said Kotierk, \u201cis work really hard to create spaces and pockets where unilingual Inuktut speakers can walk around doing normal, regular day-to-day things with dignity and not have to rely on individuals in their family who are not trained as interpreters.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|0|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||”]<\/p>\n Nunavut is a special place when it comes to language, Kotierk said. It is the only jurisdiction in Canada where the majority of residents don\u2019t speak English or French. Today, Inuit account for about 85 per cent of Nunavut\u2019s population of 35,580. Of that number, 65 per cent identify Inuktut as their mother tongue, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada. But that number is rapidly declining.<\/p>\n Nunavut is just one of the areas that make up Inuit Nunangat, the vast Inuit region of Canada that also includes Nunavik in northern Quebec, Nunatsiavut in Newfoundland and Labrador and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories. In total, Inuit Nunangat is made up of 51 communities spread over a massive 35 per cent of Canada\u2019s land mass, resulting in at least a dozen distinct Inuktut dialects, including Inuktitut in Nunavik, Inuttitut in Nunatsiavut, Inuvialutktun in the ISR and Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun in Nunavut\u2014 many of which have subdialects.<\/p>\n Within Nunavut there are seven major dialects, including Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, most of which are deteriorating at different rates.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/www.itk.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ITK-Map-20190429-digital-simplified.jpg” url=”https:\/\/inuktutlexicon.gcrc.carleton.ca\/index.html?module=module.inuktutlexicon_dialect_map” url_new_window=”on” _builder_version=”3.22.5″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” custom_margin=”-25px||”]<\/p>\n Map of Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit regions of Canada. [Courtesy of ITK]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0|0px|27px|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.22.3″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_circle_counter title=”English use in Inuit households in Nunavut in 1991″ number=”29″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ title_font=”||||||||” title_font_size=”21px” title_line_height=”1.3em” custom_padding=”66px||”][\/et_pb_circle_counter][et_pb_circle_counter title=”English use in Inuit households in Nunavut in 2011″ number=”46″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ title_font=”||||||||” title_font_size=”21px” title_line_height=”1.3em”][\/et_pb_circle_counter][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||”]<\/p>\n Ian Martin, an associate professor at York University who has spent two decades studying Nunavut\u2019s education system, is the author of several reports on Inuktut language policy. He contributed to Nunavut\u2019s first bilingual education strategy and to Justice Thomas Berger\u2019s Conciliator\u2019s Report on the Nunavut Project in 2006 before working on the Kitikmeot Inuit Association\u2019s Language Revitalization Strategy in 2011-2012.<\/p>\n In a 2017 report titled, Inuit Language Loss in Nunavut: Analysis, Forecast, and Recommendations<\/em>, Martin found that Inuktut use in Inuit homes in Nunavut dropped from 76 per cent in 1996 to only 61 per cent in 2011, while English use increased from 28.5 per cent in 1991 to 46 per cent in 2011. Mother-tongue Inuktut speakers dropped from 88 to 80 per cent from 1996 to 2011. Within 32 years, Martin estimated, only four per cent of households in Nunavut will include anyone who can speak Inuktut.<\/p>\n This year marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of Nunavut, but the once-heralded vision of Inuktut as the prime language of public service in an Inuit homeland is still just that \u2014 a vision.<\/p>\n Nunavut split from the Northwest Territories and became its own territory on April 1, 1999.<\/p>\n At the time, strengthening Inuktut was identified as a key priority upon creation for the new territory. But two decades later, English has replaced Inuktut in most aspects of daily life in Iqaluit, the territory\u2019s political and economic centre with a population of about 7,700.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section3″ module_id=”section3″ _builder_version=”3.22.5″ custom_padding=”0|0px|54px|0px|false|false” z_index_tablet=”500″ collapsed=”off”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”50px|0px|0|0|false|false” admin_label=”Language Funding Disparity” _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21″ text_font=”Roboto||||||||” header_font=”Roboto|300||on|||||” header_2_font=”||||||||”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.5″ text_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” custom_margin=”0px||” custom_padding=”25px||”]<\/p>\n Nunavut has three official languages at the territorial level, Inuktut, English and French. But unlike English and French, Inuktut doesn\u2019t have federal official language status.<\/p>\n Under Canada\u2019s Official Languages Act, the federal government is obligated to fund minority language programming in either English or French (i.e. English- language funding in Quebec and French language funding in every other province and territory).<\/p>\n But even though Inuktut, with 23,225 speakers, is the majority language of taxpayers in Nunavut, it receives about the same level of federal funding for public services as the minority French population of about 630 speakers.<\/p>\n In the latest four-year Canada-Nunavut funding agreement, $15.8 million was earmarked for Inuktut while French will receive $14.2 million, which in 2019 provides about $219 for each Inuktut-speaker compared to $6,984 for each French speaker.<\/p>\n The money helps fund Iqaluit\u2019s \u00c9cole des Trois-Soleils, the only French- language school in the territory, which opened in Iqaluit in 2002 and teaches students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.<\/p>\n But Nunavut does not yet have a single school devoted to educating students in the Inuktut language.<\/p>\n As of 2016, there were 11 out of 27 schools in the territory providing bilingual English-Inuktut education from Kindergarten to Grade 3, according to a report from the Office of the Languages Commissioner.<\/p>\n Though French receives drastically more funding than Inuktut, Kotierk pointed out that French speakers in the territory also experience inequality when it comes to essential services. The goal isn\u2019t to pit one language against another, but rather to equalize funding so that all languages can thrive. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Federal funding for Inuktut would need to be at least $700 million over four years in order to adequately fund services on a per capita basis, Kotierk estimated.<\/p>\n A spokesperson from Canadian Heritage did not provide an answer as to why\u00a0Inuktut and French receive similar federal funding when there are thousands more Inuktut speakers than French in Nunavut.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The Government of Canada has a legal obligation to fund costs for French-language services in the three territories,” the emailed response stated. “The Government of Canada also negotiated agreements with all three territories to provide support for Indigenous languages at a comparable level of funding to French-language services.”<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.22.5″]Life and death<\/h1>\n
Language funding disparity<\/h1>\n