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Helen Klengenberg says she’s noticed fewer and fewer people speaking Inuinnaqtun where she lives in Kugluktuk, Nunavut.
“You hear from many people that we’re losing our language, especially Inuinnaqtun,” she said. “It’s very difficult to speak Inuinnaqtun nowadays. Wherever I go I try to speak it, however you get responses back in English. So it’s very difficult and there are very few speakers left.”
Klengenberg was the territory’s languages commissioner from 2017 to 2019, so she knows how important preserving Inuinnaqtun is. The languages commissioner is is appointed for a five-year term by the Commissioner of Nunavut on the recommendation of the Legislative Assembly. They’re responsible for ensuring the rights of Nunavut’s four official languages and upholding the Official Languages Act.
Now, Nunavut has been without a languages commissioner for one year. The last commissioner finished her term in February 2025 and there has been no one in the role since then, according to the clerk of the Legislative Assembly Stephen Innuksuk.
He said the delay in hiring a commissioner is because they didn’t get a successful candidate the first time around when the position was advertised last year. Innuksuk said an announcement about the commissioner is coming and will be made in the winter sitting of the Legislative Assembly.
The office is still able to function without the commissioner, but Klengenberg said it does make things more difficult since it’s the commissioner who sets out the goals and objectives for the year.
Klengenberg said the position being left vacant signals to her that filling it just isn’t a priority.
“You get the feeling it’s been a year now, and anytime any longer it’s going to be your questioning of, ‘Why are they taking so long?’” she said.
Not only notable language vacancy in the territory
This is not the only vacancy surrounding language in the territory. Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit (IUT), Nunavut’s language authority, has three staff members, according to languages minister Brian Koonoo.
The authority was created by Nunavut’s Legislative Assembly and has several powers under the Inuit Language Protection Act including making decisions about Inuit language use and terminology development. IUT has eight staff positions, however only three are filled.
According to Koonoo, the vacancies are outside their control and are because of “consequences of death.”
“We all deal with short staff and budgeting, and unfortunately, there’s some deaths that happen at times,” he said.
Koonoo said the vacancies will be filled as “soon as possible” but gave no definite date. The office of the minister of languages says one additional staff member will come on board on April 4.
IUT also has seven people on a board of directors, however their term will end on March 29. Koonoo said nine names have been put forward for the board’s next three-year term and those members will take office on April 1.
No interest in languages commissioner position
Koonoo said he’s “concerned” about the vacancies in languages roles across the territory, but that the culture and heritage staff are doing their best to fill the positions.
No acting languages commissioner was ever appointed, and Koonoo said that’s because of a lack of interest in the role from the public.
“There has not been a lot of interest to fulfill that position. Even though there had been a call for nominations, there was nobody that was willing,” Koonoo said.
He said the reason it’s so difficult to recruit someone to be the commissioner is because Nunavut is losing its elders who have knowledge of Inuktut.
Still, Klengenberg said an acting commissioner should have been appointed because now the next commissioner will have to play catch up.
“A year is not unreasonable, but it’s a long time to be without a commissioner. They could have hired someone to act until they hired someone,” Klengenberg said. “There’s going to be a lot of catching up to do.”
Innuksuk said an announcement about the commissioner will be made in the Legislative Assembly in March.