Question Period Note: Accountability in official languages

In the interest of transparency and the sound management of public finances, Canadian Heritage relies on reporting mechanisms that include data collection from partners of the Action Plan for Official Languages, as well as federal institutions’ annual reviews used to produce the Annual Report on Official Languages.

• Accountability and transparency are at the heart of the concerted actions of Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board Secretariat to ensure public accountability on official languages for the benefit of Canadians.
• Our commitment to accountability and transparency is concretely reflected in the public and accessible accountability framework of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023 available online.
• Our Government is in fact committed to being exemplary in its official languages obligations, and the modernized Act provides for greater horizontal coordination and compliance by federal institutions.

• Official languages accountability is a topic of interest to stakeholders and parliamentary committees.
• Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board Secretariat implement a common approach to data collection among federal institutions that allows for better reporting of actions taken to comply with the various parts of the Act. This coordinated approach makes it possible to obtain an overarching view of how official languages are factored in by federal institutions and to exercise concerted governance.
• Federal institutions are required to submit a report on the implementation of the Act at least once every three years, especially regarding the application of Parts IV, V, VI and VII of the Act. A copy of these reports must be provided to the clerks of the two parliamentary committees on official languages.
• In the interest of transparency and efficiency, since 2021, Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board Secretariat have been forwarding all annual reviews received to these parliamentary committees and to the Commissioner of Official Languages. The 2020-2021 reviews were sent in October 2021, and the 2021-2022 reviews in October 2022.
• These reviews are used to produce the annual reports tabled in Parliament by the Minister for Official Languages and the President of the Treasury Board.
• The Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future, available on Canada.ca, also has a public accountability framework that outlines federal partners' accountability strategy. This strategy is based on three mechanisms:
o Canadian Heritage's Annual Report on Official Languages;
o A table of expenditures published annually on the Canadian Heritage website, which will include:
 federal organizations and their initiatives;
 total allocations (from implementation date to completion date);
 forecasted spending;
 actual spending; and
 results obtained.
o Departmental results reports from departments and agencies implementing new initiatives from the 2018–2023 Action Plan, as well as from those implementing existing official languages programs and initiatives.
• This annual reporting and collection of financial data from federal institutions with official languages programs and initiatives allows Canadian Heritage, as coordinator of the implementation of the five-year strategies and of commitments set out in Part VII of the Act, to report on the ongoing funding.
• In the context of the pandemic, the Department also collected additional data about the impact of health measures on the implementation of initiatives.
• Action Plan 2018-2023 underwent a horizontal evaluation conducted by the Evaluation Services Branch of Canadian Heritage. Two recommendations were made: 1) to review the Plan’s pillars and components to increase the likelihood of achieving expected medium- and long-term results, and 2) identify ways to produce and ensure accountability and availability of financial data that would better assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Action Plan and any subsequent plans. These recommendations, in addition to the recommendations of the Commissioner of Official Languages' report on the implementation of the 2018-2023 Action Plan, and the Cross-Canadian consultations of summer 2022, guided the development of the Action Plan for Official Languages2023-2028.
• In addition to the mechanisms set out in the accountability framework, Canadian Heritage also conducted a mid-term review exercise after two years of implementation, to assess the situation on the ground, identify adjustments required, and share best practices among partners.

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