Question Period Note: LANGUAGE OF WORK

The Commissioner of Official Languages is scheduled to table his Official Languages Annual Report on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.

• Canada’s two official languages are at the core of our history and our identity and the Government of Canada has committed to strengthening the Official Languages Act.
• The Government is committed to delivering federal services in accordance with its official languages obligations and new Official Languages Regulations will ensure Canadians have greater access to federal services in the official language of their choice.
• Our policies help ensure that positions in the public service are identified bilingual where required, and that this is done at the appropriate level of bilingualism. This is critical to creating and maintaining a workplace that supports the use of both English and French.

• Deputy heads are responsible for managing their organizations and for ensuring they meet all their official languages obligations.

Generally, the Commissioner’s Official Languages Annual Report charts the federal government’s progress on official languages; criticizes shortfalls and systemic issues; lists statistics on and the distribution of admissible complaints for the year of the publication; and, issues the Commissioner’s recommendations for continuous improvement in the file.
In the 2019-2020 report, the Office of the Commissioner mentions issues of interest to the Treasury Board Secretariat: the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations; and section 91 of the Act.
The Commissioner will revisit his criticism of certain provisions of the new Regulations, which came into effect in June 2019. He expresses his disappointment that numerical thresholds are still in the Regulations, and that the minority school is the only criterion of socio-economic vitality.
Eliminating percentage thresholds would considerably increase the number of bilingual offices without there being a corresponding demand for bilingual services. Removing all percentage thresholds could also have resulted in unilingual designations in communities currently with access to bilingual services. The studies conducted as part of the revision of the Regulations showed that the minority school criterion was the criterion which applied to the highest number of minority language communities. In fact, nearly 97% of the members of these communities are within 25 kilometres of a minority school.
The regulatory amendments represent an important step forward for official language minority communities, which strongly supported the amendments. They will result in some 700 newly designated bilingual offices, which will increase the percentage of bilingual federal service points from 34% to over 40%. These new Regulations are also more inclusive because they now better capture immigrants and bilingual families. Canadians will therefore have better access to federal services in both official languages.
The Commissioner also touches on the issue of communications within the context of crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In his opinion, the preliminary report is far from satisfactory because “[Translation] too often the information was published in only one official language.” The Commissioner will revisit these issues in the coming months.
In his report, the Commissioner will revisit the “systemic issue” relating to section 91 of the Act, further to a large number of complaints received relating to section 91 since 2014. Section 91 of the Act specifies the objective determination of language requirements of positions (unilingual or bilingual and their level of bilingualism) during staffing processes in the federal public service. In the Commissioner’s opinion, the language requirements of bilingual supervisory positions must be set at a high level (so-called “CBC”). TBS is considering increasing the minimum language requirements for bilingual supervisors in bilingual regions, but it is aware of the impact on departments' operations.
The report will contain three recommendations relating to the following issues:
1) Institutional compliance and leadership: will instead focus on Elections Canada
2) Modernization of the Act: The September 23, 2020 Speech from the Throne reiterated the federal government’s commitment “[Translation] to strengthening the Official Languages Act while taking into consideration the unique reality of French.” The Commissioner and several stakeholders are concerned about the vocabulary used in the statement, specifically the word “strengthen” which to them means the objective will not be an in-depth modernization. They are also concerned there is no timeframe for the tabling of a bill. The mandate letters will provide details on next steps.
3) Promotion of linguistic duality as a Canadian value: will instead focus on Canadian Heritage’s responsibilities under Part VII of the Act – Promotion of English and French and – The Action Plan for Official Languages 2018–2023: Investing in Our Future, which it is responsible for.

• The Commissioner's 2019–2020 report mentions two issues of interest to the Treasury Board Secretariat: the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations; and section 91 of the Official Languages Act, which specifies the objective determination of language requirements of positions.
• The Commissioner's 2019–2020 report contains three recommendations to the Prime Minister on the following issues: institutional compliance and leadership; modernization of the Act; and promotion of linguistic duality as a Canadian value.