Question Period Note: Bill aimed at strengthening the Official Languages Act

• We recognize that the French language is threatened in North America. It is in decline in Canada, including in Quebec.
• Our Government is there to protect it, and protect official language minority communities all across the country.
• Bill C-13 embodies the vision and commitments of our Government to our two official languages. It proposes significant enhancements to better support our official language minorities.
• Our two official languages are of fundamental importance to the unity of our country and the defense of minority language rights.

• On March 1st, 2022, the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency tabled Bill C-13 An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts in the House of Commons.
o Debate at second reading took place in the House of Commons on May 20, 2022 and concluded on May 30, 2022 with a vote held the same day.
o The bill is now before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages and
is also under consideration in the Senate since May 31, 2022.
• On June 2nd, 2022, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (BPO) released an independent analysis of the financial cost of Bill C-13, An Act to ensure substantive equality among Canada's official languages. The study was commissioned by the Senate Committee on Official Languages. Articles report that for the private sector, the PBO estimates one-time compliance costs of $240 million and recurring costs of $20 million per year.
o Before the Senate Committee on Official Languages, the PBO said he expects the costs associated with implementing Bill C-13, once it is passed, to be "fairly low" for Quebec businesses.
• On June 9, 2022, the Quebec Government proposed amendments to Bill C-13 to incorporate the specifics of the Charter of the French Language. In a letter sent to the Standing Committee on Official Languages, the Quebec Minister responsible for Canadian Relations and the Canadian Francophonie indicated that these proposals aim "to improve Bill C-13 in order to respond to the issues of the minority reality of the French language in Canada and to make the federal language regime more compatible and coherent with that of Quebec."
• Bill C-13 includes the key measures of the previous version of the Bill including recognition of provincial and territorial linguistic realities, increased support for French across Canada, including Quebec, and a ten-year review clause.
• Bill C-13 goes further, also proposing significant reinforcements from the previous Bill:
o A strengthening of the provisions relating to Francophone immigration.
o A strengthening of the provisions linked to federal institutions taking positive measures.
o A strengthening of the provisions in connection to the English-speaking communities in Québec.
o An additional strengthening of Treasury Board’s powers with regards to official languages.
o The addition of precision linked to emergency situations.
o The addition of the principle of interpretation as to the restorative nature of linguistic rights in "interpretation ".
o A transfer of dispositions relating to the federally regulated private businesses in a new law.
o A new power entrusted in the Commissioner of Official Languages to impose administrative monetary sanction to certain privatized or Crown corporations in the field of transportation who offer a service to the travelling public.
o The withdrawal of the modification that would have made that final decisions made by federal courts would no longer have to be translated.
o And the strengthening of Canada’s commitment to contribute to the estimation of children of rights-holders.
• On February 19, 2021, the Government of Canada unveiled its official languages reform paper, English and French: Towards Substantive Equality of Official Languages in Canada, on the government's vision for a modernized and strengthened OLA. This document outlines the federal government's intentions, as well as a series of regulatory and administrative measures.
• On April 19, 2021, the Government of Canada presented its Budget 2021: A Recovery for Jobs, Growth and Resilience. It proposes to invest $389.9 million over three years, beginning in 2021-2022, to support official languages. Among other things, it suggests $6.4 million to Canadian Heritage and $2.3 million to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat over two years to modernize the OLA.
• The OLA came into force in 1969 and gave equal status and use to English and French not only in Parliament and the courts, but also throughout the federal administration. In September 1988, the second OLA incorporated and clarified the language rights and principles set out in the Constitution Act, 1867 and enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982. The most recent milestone in the evolution of the OLA was passed in 2005, adding obligations to implement the Part VII commitment.

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