Question Period Note: Bilateral Agreements on Minority-Language Services

In order to support intergovernmental cooperation on minority-language services, the Government of Canada reaches agreements with provincial and territorial governments. Federal-provincial service agreements for the 2018-2023 period have been reached with most provinces. Agreements with Quebec and Alberta are for a shorter period and must be renewed shortly. The service agreements that are in place with each of the territories will expire at the end of March 2020.

• The Government of Canada is proud of its longstanding collaboration with provinces and territories to ensure better services for official language minority communities.
• The Government of Canada provides 133.5 million dollars over five years to support the provision of provincial and territorial services in the minority official language.

• Canadian Heritage allocates 9.6 million dollars annually to the provincial governments, through federal-provincial service agreements.
• The federal-provincial service agreements expired on March 31, 2018 and new 2018-2023 agreements were reached with most provinces.
o In the case of Alberta, an extension for 2018-2020 was negotiated.
o For Quebec, an agreement covering the 2018-2019 period is in place and negotiations will be held shortly for a future agreement.
• Federal funding to the provinces for bilateral service agreements ranges from 350,000 dollars to 1.4 million dollars annually, depending on the province. Half of the provinces receive between 1.2 million and 1.4 million dollars annually.
• Since 2018-2019, Canadian Heritage has provided 17.1 million dollars per year to the three territorial governments for the provision of French-language services.
o Agreements with territorial governments are in place for 2016-2020 and were enhanced, in December 2017, with the announcement of new funding of up to 12 million dollars per year for French-language services for the three territories.
• In total, Canadian Heritage will provide 26.7 million dollars per year, or 133.5 million dollars over five years (2018-2023) for bilateral agreements on minority language services with the provinces and territories.
• The 2018-2023 Action Plan for Official Languages does not include additional investments for the bilateral service agreements. However, the Action Plan includes a series of new investments aimed primarily (but not exclusively) at community organizations, that will enhance, amongst other things, the provision of services in official language minority communities in areas such as immigration, health, early childhood education, justice, and community media.

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