Question Period Note: SERVICE CANADA’S TELEPHONE INTERPRETATION SERVICE

How does Service Canada provide telephone services to clients who speak languages other than English and French?

• Service Canada has access to interpreters in over 100 languages to serve clients including Newcomers and Indigenous peoples.
• The Telephone Interpretation Service ensures individuals who don’t speak English or French have access to information, services and federal benefits.
• This service is available in all Service Canada Centres, Scheduled Outreach sites, the Outreach Support Centre phone line, the Covid-19 line, and 1-800 Information line for Ukrainian newcomers.
• In addition, Service Canada employees who speak Indigenous languages also provide direct service in 22 locations. For example, in the three Service Canada Centres in Nunavut, service is offered in Inuktitut, Paallirmiutut, and Inuinnaqtun.

The following is a comprehensive list of potential languages offered through the Telephone Interpretation Service. This can change based on the availability of interpreters.

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
Algonquian
Blackfoot
Cree
Cree-James Bay
Cree-Moose
Cree-Plains
Cree-Swampy
Cree-Woodlands
Dakota
Dene
Dogrib
Inuinnaqtun
Inuktitut
Michif
Mi'kmaq
Mohawk
North Slavey
Ojibway
Oji-Cree
Saulteaux
Slavey
South Slavey
Tsilhqotin

AFRICAN LANGUAGES
Afar
Afrikaans
Akan
Amharic
Anuak
Anyin
Asante
Azari
Bambara
Baoule
Berber
Bilen
Borana
Chichewa
Creole
Creole-Haitian
Creole-Cape Verdean
Creole-West African
Dinka
Dyula
Ewe
Fante
Fulani
Ga
Hausa
Igbo
Kasem
Kikongo
Kinyamulenge
Kinyarwanda
Kirundi
Kissi
Kiswahili
Krahn
Krio
Kunama
Lingala
Luganda
Luhya
Maay Maay
Malagasy
Mandingo
Mandinka
Nuer
Nupe
Nyanja
Oromo
Papiamentu
Pidgin
Runyakitara
Saho
Shona
Somali
Susu
Swahili
Tigre
Tigrinya/ Eritrean
Tshiluba
Twi
Wolof
Yoruba
Zulu

EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
WESTERN
Catalan
Danish
Dutch
English
Flemish
Finnish
French

EASTERN
Albanian
Armenian
Belarusian
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Estonian
French-Canadian
French-France
French-African
German
Greek
Icelandic
Italian
Georgian
Hungarian
Kyrgyz
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Mixtec
Moldavian
Low German
Luxembourghish
Norwegian
Swedish
Portuguese
Portuguese-African
Portuguese-Azores
Montenegrin
Neapolitan
Ossetian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Portuguese-Brazilian
Portuguese-Portugal
Spanish
Slovakian
Slovenian
Ukrainian

ASIAN LANGUAGES
EAST ASIAN & PACIFIC
Bikol
Burmese
Burmese-Rohingya
Cantonese
Cebuano
Chin-Hakha
Chin-Falam
Chin-Tedim
Foochow
Fukianese
Fuzhounese
Hakka

EAST INDIAN
Bengali
Gujarati
Hindi
Hindko

MIDDLE EAST
Arabic
Arabic-Moroccan
Arabic-Sudanese
Arabic-Lebanese
Arabic-Egyptian
Arabic-Gulfland
Hokkien
Ilocano
Indonesian
Indonesian-Bahasa
Javanese
Sundanese
Japanese
Kapampangan
Karen
Karen-Sgaw
Kazakh
Khmer/ Cambodian
Malayalam
Marathi
Nepali
Punjabi
Arabic-Iraqi
Arabic-Syrian
Arabic-Jordanian
Aramaic
Assyrian
Azeri-Azarbaijani
Korean
Lao
Malay
Maltese
Mandarin
Mien
Mongolian
Shanghainese
Samoan
Tagalog
Taishanese
Taiwanese
Sinhala
Sylheti
Tamil
Telugu
Chaldean
Dari
Farsi/ Persian
Hebrew
Kurdish
Kurdish-Kurmanji
Tajik
Teochow
Thai
Tongan
Toisan/Taishan
Uyghur
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Visayan
Waray
Tibetan
Urdu
Kurmanji-Behdini
Kurdish-Sorani
Pashto/ Afghan
Salish
Turkish
Yazidi

• The Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Passport Call Centre and 1-800 O’Canada provide services in both official languages. If a caller is having difficulty in communicating in either language, the agents will ask the client if they have someone with them that could act as a translator or interpreter on their behalf.