Northwest Territories

The Francophone Flag of the Northwest Territories (1992) features a curve with a bear perched on it. The white represents snow, the blue, the Francophonie. The NWT is located north of the 60th parallel, represented by this curve, near the North Pole. A symbol of freedom, nature and vast Nordic spaces, the bear looks at the bright snowflake and the fleur de lys, symbolizing the Francophone community in a Nordic land.

Population Demographic Vitality The French language The great majority of the people of the Northwest Territories are anglophone. Out of the 40,030 inhabitants (post-April 1999 borders), fewer than 10,000 have a mother tongue other than English. Only 1,010 residents are francophone, while 8,845 have a non-official mother tongue. The following data are from Statistics Canada, 1998. A significant increase in the number of francophones ... The number of people with French as a mother tongue in the Northwest Territories (pre-1999 borders) almost tripled between 1951 and 1996. The increase was parti-cularly significant from 1951 to 1961 due to the rapid expansion of the mining industry around Yellowknife. Oil drilling and large infrastructure projects continued to attract large numbers of people from the South, including many francophones, until the early 1990s. The francophone population stabilized between 1991 and 1996. ... But a decrease in percentages The franco-tenois portion of the total population of the Northwest Territories fluctuated between 3.6 percent in 1971 and 2.2 percent in 1996. Though the relative weight increased between 1951 and 1961, the increase in the total population has been greater than that of the francophone population. Since 1961, the proportion of franco-tenois to the total population has dropped continually. Francophones in the Northwest Territories are concentrated in Yellowknife where they account for 3.8 percent of the population. A male majority Among the francophones of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, males are clearly in the majority: 870 males compared to 620 females, representing a ratio of almost 6 to 4. However, the ratio of the sexes evens out in the group of francophones who have both English and French as their mother tongues. A mostly adult population The francophone population of the present Northwest Territories is mostly made up of adults. Under-15s count for only 8.3 percent of the total francophone population compared to 29 percent for the territories as a whole. This small percentage of young people is particularly noticeable around the center of the age distribution, where the discrepancies with the total population are very marked for adults. This demographic structure reflects the particular economy of the Northwest Territories, which is largely dominated by resource exploitation. Among francophones in the territories, family units are small and young people rare. The consolidation of French-language educational institutions might help the franco-tenois community to renew its base. ...Born elsewhere... In the Northwest Territories, nine out of ten francophones were born outside the territories. Almost all are from other Canadian provinces, with immigrants forming only 4.2 percent of the franco-tenois population. Franco-tenois come from all regions of the country, but especially from Quebec and Acadian communities. The francophone community thus has many roots and this obviously has an effect on its members’ sense of belonging and identity. ... And highly mobile One-third of francophones in the present Northwest Territories lived at the same address in 1996 as in 1991. Among the others, many have remained in the same community. However, Franco-tenois are characterized by a relatively high rate of migration, with only about 40 percent living in the same community as at the time of the preceding census. These large population movements are linked to the ups and downs of the territorial economy and resulted in the impossibility of educating children in French beyond grade nine. French Mother Tongue Population: 1 050 English Mother Tongue Population: 29 080 Population with a knowledge of both official languages: 3 130 Other Mother Tongue Population: 7 425 Total Population: 37 105 Representative Organizations Major organizations The Fédération Franco-TéNOise (FFT) is the organization that speaks for the francophone community in the Northwest Territories. Founded in 1978 as the Association culturelle franco-téNOise, the organization changed its name in 1988 to the Fédération Franco-TéNOise. The FFT expanded its membership, reaching a peak in 1995 of seven regular members, six associated members and about a dozen individual members. In addition to political lobbying, program management and community development, the FFT is increasingly concerned with providing its members with a wide range of services. Fédération Franco-Ténoise P.O. Box 1325 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2N9 Tel.: (867) 920-2919 Fax: (867) 873-2158 E-mail: fft@franco-nord.com Other Organizations The Associated Members Network of the Fédération Franco-TéNOise Association des francophones de Fort Smith P.O. Box 322 Fort Smith, Northwest Territories X0E 0P0 Tel.: (867) 872-2338 Fax: (867) 872-5710 E-mail: affs@auroranet.nt.ca Association des parents francophones de Yellowknife P.O. Box 2243 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2P7 Tel.: (867) 920-2919 Fax: (867) 873-2158 Association franco-culturelle de Hay River 301-3 Capital Drive, Hay River, Northwest Territories X0E 1G2 Tel.: (867) 874-3171 Fax: (867) 874-2687 E-mail: afchr@cancom.net Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife P.O. Box 1586 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2P2 Tel.: (867) 873-3292 Fax: (867) 873-2158 E-mail: afcy@franco-nord.com Boréal Consultants P.O. Box 488 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2N4 Tel.: (867) 920-2919 Fax: (867) 873-2158 Éditions franco-tenoises/L’Aquilon P.O. Box 1325 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2N9 Tel.: (867) 873-6603 Fax: (867) 873-2158 E-mail: aquilon@internorth.com Fondation Franco-TéNOise P.O. Box 1325 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2N9 Tel.: (867) 920-2919 Fax: (867) 873-2158 Garderie Plein Soleil P.O. Box 1061 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2N8 Tel.: (867) 873-9570 Fax: (867) 920-4647 Regroupement des parents francophones des Territoires du Nord-Ouest P.O. Box 2243 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2P7 Tel.: (867) 920-2919 Fax: (867) 873-2158 Community Life Cultural and Community Life Amateur Theater Group « Les pas frette aux yeux ». Monthly French movie. Maison Laurent-Leroux in Yellowknife. Franco-tenois literary prize (annual). Jeanne-Dubé Prize (annual). Participation in the Franco-Canadian Northern and Western Parliament. Participation in the Canadian Francophone Games. Publication of a rotating calendar. Publication of an associated members network directory. Participation in cultural and trade fairs. Directory of services offered in French by private companies in the Northwest Territories. Promotional products: scarves, mugs, pins, flags. Scholarship program. Annual Elles-ténoises symposium. Youth committee. Artistic group tour. Communications Economy Newspapers and magazines L’Aquilon, weekly - circulation: 1,000 copies L’Aquilon web site: http://users.internorth.com/~aquilon/Franco-tenois associated members network web site: http://www.franco-nord.com/ Radio Radio-Canada [French CBC] in Yellowknife (non-cable signal) Community radio in Yellowknife (a licence application was made to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in the fall of 1999) Television In Yellowknife, Radio-Canada (non-cable), TVA and TV5 Economy Economy Franco-tenois are a people in motion. Coming mainly from Quebec and Acadian communities, they normally remain in the Northwest Territories for two or three years. They hold two records: that of themost educated minority and that of the highest average salary in Canada. In 2000, a sociodemographic study will be produced on this subject. The main sources of income for franco-tenois are mining (gold and diamonds), government services, and business, particularly in the areas of construction and high technology. An educated francophone population Education is the key to the vitality of the franco-tenois community. This vitality comes in part from the fact that a large percentage of francophones have a post-secondary education: 260 of them have a university education and, in addition, some 330 franco-tenois finished college or other studies. Their contribution to francophone development in the territories is immeasurable. At present, in the Northwest Territories, 65 francophones own their own business. Franco-tenois businesspeople constitute 8.7 percent of the francophone labour force. A large number of these business owners employ other people, thus providing employment to francophones and other residents of the territories. Franco-tenois employment sectors The economy of the Northwest Territories is highly dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. This being so, the distribution of francophones among employment sectors is somewhat surprising. There are few franco-tenois in the goods-producing industries except for mining and oil, which employ approximately 60 francophones. There are many more francophones in other sectors: construction and transportation each employ as many workers as mining and oil production. Francophones are very well represented in the public services sector, where the proportion of francophones in public administration, education, health and social services exceeds 40 percent. Francophones are also very much present in the service sector and, to a certain extent, this makes them less vulnerable to resource price cycles. Occupations Job distribution by type of occupation provides another way of looking at the economic vitality of francophones in the Northwest Territories. One sector is clearly dominant: sales and services, which employs one franco-tenois in five. Sixteen percent of the labour force is in the trades. In both of these employment categories, income levels are quite low. The fact that many francophones are in social sciences, education and government services might, however, restore this imbalance. Income mostly from employment... Francophones in the Northwest Territories receive most of their income from employment. For example, in the Fort Smith area, 91.2 percent of the income of francophones (925 francophones out of 1,010) comes from employment. Government transfers account for only 6 percent of their income, indicating that francophones depend very little on government assistance. ... and relatively high The average income of franco-tenois is high: $41,315 for francophones in the Fort Smith region - $8,000 more than for the population of the region as a whole. The income profile of francophones in the Northwest Territories is varied. One francophone in six has an income under $10,000. A little more than 30 percent have incomes under $30,000. Most franco-tenois are at the upper end of the income scale and about a quarter of francophones have incomes of over $60,000. The average individual income of francophones in the Fort Smith region is $41,315. This is well above the average income of the region ($33,131). Education Education and training Alain Saint-Cyr school in Yellowknife (French mother tongue, grades 1-10). Refrancization program for children at the Plein Soleil daycare centre. Courses given in French for adults in Yellowknife and Iqaluit. Nakasuk school in Iqaluit (French mother tongue grades 1-6). Development of new programs of study and pedagogical resources for learning French and learning in French. Health Health and Social Services Health services are covered by the Official Languages Act of the N.W.T.. One hospital position is designated francophone, but has not yet been filled. In addition, several doctors and nurses speak French. Government Legislation and Services Federal government According to the Official Languages Commissioner’s report, 3.9 percent of federal public service positions (43 positions) in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut were designated bilingual in 1998. In that same year, there were 33 federal francophone civil servants - 3 percent of all personnel. In 1988, two departments offered French services in two offices. Since December 1993, federal services in Yellowknife must be provided in both official languages. Territorial Government Largely based on its federal equivalent, the Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories, adopted in 1984, confirms the equality of French and English in all government services: in all head offices, in offices where there is a specific need and in offices where there is a significant demand. A Canada-N.W.T. cooperation agreement on languages provides for full funding of French services by the federal government. The Fédération Franco-TéNOise, which represents the francophone community, believing that after 15 years that the Official Languages Act is still not being applied, took legal action against the territorial and federal governments in January 2000. Municipalities There are no municipal services offered in French. However, the municipality of Fort Smith is quadrilingual. Legal Services In the civil and criminal areas, the legal system is able to provide trials in French. There is a francophone Justice of the Peace. Linguistic Vitality Stability of French spoken at home ... In 1996 (before the creation of Nunavut), 607 persons in the Northwest Territories said that they most often speak French at home. This number was 585 in 1971. The use of French in daily family life is an important element of franco-tenois dynamics. Given that French is in more or less close contact with English everywhere in the territories, this stability is somewhat surprising. It can be explained, however, by the yearly influx of francophones (to north of the 60th parallel) from communities where French is the majority language or from places where the weight of francophone numbers helps guarantee its place as the main language of the home. The knowledge of French is increasingly widespread In the Northwest Territories, the number of people who know French (alone or with English) has quadrupled since the 1950s. In 1981, 2,755 people claimed to speak French. Today, the figure is 4,035 (6.3 percent of the population). While still only a small fraction of the population, the increase indicates the attraction of the French language in the territories today and that an increased francophile population would be of benefit to the region. Linguistic continuity: the difficulty of maintaining French The French language, being in close contact with English, nevertheless has difficulty maintaining itself in the Northwest Territories. The French continuity index is only 0.43, indicating that more than half of franco-tenois tend not to use French in the family setting. The index has shown a downward tendency in recent years. The intermarriage rate, which is very high, is one likely cause. Efforts during the 1970s to ensure French continuity in the region have no doubt produced positive results despite the small demographic weight of the franco-tenois community. In 1996, 70 percent of francophone families in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut were of intermarriages. History British Columbia's francophones have actively participated in the development of the province by establishing institutions that would later serve as springboards for future societies. When Alexander Mackenzie, the first European to cross the Rockies, reached the Pacific in 1793, he was accompanied by six French Canadian voyageurs. Some years later, more than 20 French Canadians traveled with Simon Fraser on the series of voyages that would lead to the construction of numerous forts in the region for the Northwest Company. By 1812, more than 300 French Canadians were engaged in the fur trade or worked the land. They were the first colonizers of British Columbia. Along with the Church, they built a host society for those who would later settle in the area. Following the gold rush and the massive influx of immigrants at the end of the 19th century, francophones quickly found themselves in the minority. Isolated from one another, they did not form communities until the arrival in 1909 of Quebec families recruited by the owners of Fraser Mills. A community of francophone workers then grew up along the banks of the Fraser River east of Vancouver where the first French language parish in British Columbia was founded. Known as Notre Dame de Lourdes, the parish grew and the community took on the name of Maillardville. The francophone population of Maillardville grew, fed to a large extent by a stream of migration from Willow Bunch in Saskatchewan. The establishment of military training centres on the west coast during the war attracted large numbers of francophone recruits, many of whom remained in British Columbia, thus contributing to the vitality of French in the province. However, assimilation pressures rapidly made themselves felt. Franco-British Columbians had to fight hard and long for education in French: The Fédération canadienne-française de Colombie-Britannique (FCFCB) - now renamed the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique (FFCB) - was created in 1945 in a context of struggle for the survival of French in an environment that was extremely hostile to education in French. It was not until 1969 that the provincial government accepted the testing of a French immersion program in a public school. Franco-British Columbians have had access to a French education program since 1977. The School Act was amended in July 1997 in response to the Vickers decision handed down in August 1996. The provincial government announced, in April 1998, that the Francophone School Board would have jurisdiction throughout the province from July 1,1999. Geography In 1996, there were 1,010 persons with French as their mother tongue in what remained of the Northwest Territories following the creation of Nunavut on April 1, 1999. These francophones represented 2.5 percent of the total population of the two census divisions that now form the territories. Francophones are present in several villages and towns in the Northwest Territories. By far the greatest concentration of francophones is found in the census subdivision covering the Yellowknife urban area: more than 650 francophones (67 percent of the total franco-tenois population). There are 85 franco-tenois in Hay River, 65 in Fort Smith, 45 in Inuvik and 30 in Norman Wells. The rest are spread throughout several other communities associated with mining and oil exploitation in the Fort Smith area, the most southerly of the two divisions forming the present-day Northwest Territories. Nowhere do franco-tenois represent a significant percentage of the population: 2.7 percent in the Fort Smith area and 1.4 percent around Inuvik in the North. They represent only 3.8 percent of the population of Yellowknife, which is just slightly more than their proportion of the territories’ population as a whole. Despite their small numbers, franco-tenois have made their mark in the political, cultural and economic life of the territories. Sources The short community history notes were taken in large part from the Web site produced by the Comité national de développement des ressources humaines de la francophonie canadienne. A text by Philippe Falardeau, entitled Hier la francophonie, published by the FCFA in the context of Dessein 2000 was also a source of inspiration. Finally, several texts compiled by Joseph Yvon Thériault in Francophonies minoritaires au Canada - L’état des lieux, recently published by Éditions de l’Acadie, were used. All statistics used in producing the profiles come from Statistics Canada. Four sources were used: Data on mother tongue, French spoken in the home and knowledge of French, 1951 to 1996, were taken from Louise Marmen and Jean-Pierre Corbeil (1999), Languages in Canada. 1996. Census Canadian Heritage and Statistics Canada. New Canadian Perspectives. Catalog no. C99-980110-4F. (Marmen and Corbeil, 1999.) Data on linguistic continuity (ratio of the number of persons speaking French in the home and the number of persons with French as their mother tongue) and francophone inter marriage rates were taken from the work by Michael O'Keefe (1998), Francophone Minorities: Assimilation and Community Vitality. Canadian Heritage. New Canadian perspectives. Catalog no. C98-980021-0F. (O’Keefe, 1998.) Data on non-official mother tongues come from E-Stat 1998, an optical compact disk published under number 10F017XCB (WIN). All other data were taken from Portrait des communautés de langues officielles au Canada published by Statistics Canada in the form of an optical compact disk with catalogue no. C94F0010XCB. This disk provided data on ethnic origin and on the francophone population by sex, age, birthplace, mobility, education, occupation and income (Statistics Canada, 1998). The ability to distinguish between francophones in the present-day Northwest Territories and Nunavut varies depending on which of these sources is used. The compilations by Marmen and Corbeil and by O’Keefe do not include information at the census division level. It was therefore impossible to break down the totals given for the Northwest Territories in order to distinguish between the two populations. In Portrait des communautés de langues officielles au Canada, dat is available for all entities. We have thus been able to present data relating to the three regions of Baffin, Keewatin and Kitikmeot (Nunavut) as well as on the regions of Fort Smith and Inuvik (the new Northwest Territories) separately. Depending on the source used, the population under consideration varies slightly. The methods used to distribute the bilingual population is the main reason for these discrepancies. Both Marmen and Corbeil and O’Keefe distribute multiple responses among declared languages. For example, for persons declaring English and French as mother tongues, half of the responses are added to the « French » category and half to the “English” category. For those who declared French and a non-official language as their mother tongues, half of the responses are classed as « French » and the other half as « Non-official language ». The E-Stat diskette does not distribute multiple responses and presents all categories of responses in detail. In Portrait des communautés de langues officielles au Canada, only multiple responses relating to English-French bilingualism are broken out. Persons declaring French and a non-official language as mother tongues were all counted as having French as their mother tongue. Those declaring French, English and a third language as official languages were all classed as bilingual English-French. The populations considered here - whether French mother tongue or French and English mother tongues - are thus slightly larger. The figures on the francophone population will vary depending on whether or not they include francophones who also declared English as their mother tongue. Most of the tables and graphs presented in this profile concern only persons whose only mother tongue is French, who make up the great majority of francophones in all areas. The French mother tongue map, 1996, covers all francophones, including half of bilingual francophones. This map, produced by André Langlois, is based on data contained on the diskette Portrait des communautés de langues officielles au Canada. It is taken from the Atlas du développement des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada, which may be found on the Internet at: aix1.uottawa.ca/~andrelan/atlas. Information on community life was supplied by the Fédération Franco-TéNOise which was invited, in May 1999, to supplement two existing portraits: one of the francophone community in the Northwest Territories, produced by Canadian Heritage and presently available on its Web site, and of an older one prepared in 1990 by the Fédération des francophones hors Québec (as the FCFA was called at the time) and published in a document entitled État des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada. Modification: {ts '2006-03-27 00:00:00'}

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