Question Period Notes
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In accordance with the Access to Information Act, the government proactively publishes the package of question period notes that were prepared by a government institution for the minister and that were in use on the last sitting day in June and December.
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Budget 2023
Statistics Canada released, in August 2022, data on official languages from the 2021 Census of Canada.
Linguistic data from the 2021 Census released by Statistics Canada on August 17, 2022, indicates that between the 2016 and 2021 censuses, while the number of francophones in Quebec is increasing, their proportion is decreasing.
On May 13, 2022, the Government of Canada appealed the judgment of the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench (the Court). The Court rendered its decision in the matter of the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB) against The Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada and Her Excellency the Right Honourable Governor General on April 14, 2022. In its decision, the Court granted the SANB's request but did not annul the appointment of the current Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick.
The Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Summit submitted briefs to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages on November 23rd, 2022, as part of its study of Bill C-13, an Act to amend the Official Languages Act and to enact an Act respecting the use of French in the course of business under federal jurisdiction.
All Ministers have been given the mandate to “implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to work in partnership with Indigenous Peoples to advance their rights”. Specifically, the Minister of Canadian Heritage has a mandate (December 2021) to “Work with First Nations, Inuit and the Métis to ensure that the Indigenous Languages Act continues to be fully implemented and is supported by long-term, predictable and sustainable funding in order to preserve, promote and revitalize Indigenous languages in Canada”.
In May 2022, the press reported on the under-representation of Francophones in the senior federal public service. Some stakeholders, such as the unions representing civil servants, have found that Bill C-13 does not sufficiently address the issue of language of work in the federal public service. There are recurring compliance issues that result in numerous complaints to the Commissioner of Official Languages. In addition, there are calls for an increase in the bilingualism bonus from, $800 to $1,500.
On November 28, 2022, the Attorney General of Canada filed a factum with the Supreme Court of Canada in Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest v. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the Northwest Territories.