Question Period Note: ANNUAL REVIEWS ON OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

An article was published in La Presse on April 29, 2021 stating that some federal institutions are not submitting their Annual Reviews on Official Languages to both the House and Senate official languages parliamentary committees and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL).

· The Government of Canada is fully committed to promoting official languages and ensuring compliance with the Official Languages Act, supported by the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and through its efforts to continuously improve compliance with legislation and policies.

· Data obtained from various sources, including institutions’ annual reviews, allow TBS to monitor performance, prepare and table the Annual Report on Official Languages to Canadians and to Parliament.

· Going forward, TBS will ensure it submits its own annual review to parliamentary committees in a timely manner and will reach out to all other institutions to encourage them to do the same.

An article was published in La Presse on April 29, 2021 stating that federal institutions are not submitting their Annual Reviews on Official Languages to both the House and Senate official languages parliamentary committees and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL). The article states that federal institutions are in violation of the Official Languages Act by failing to provide these reports to the two parliamentary committees. It identifies the Treasury Board Secretariat as one of those institutions that failed to share its review with the committees for the 2018-2019 reporting year. It states that a complaint on the issue has been lodged with the OCOL by Conservative MP Alain Rayes.

While federal institutions are listed in the article as having failed to share their reviews with the parliamentary committees, it is important to note that they did formally submit their Reviews to TBS as required.

Contrary to what the article is reporting, federal institutions are under no obligation under the Official Languages Act to provide these reports to the two parliamentary committees or the OCOL. Nor is there an obligation to do so under Treasury Board policies. There is also no formal obligation to share these reports, but it is rather a long-standing practice in the interest of transparency, and federal institutions are directed by TBS to do so as a good practice.

The TBS Official Languages Review instructions clearly state that “A copy of this document must be sent to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and both Parliamentary Standing Committees on Official Languages”.

Federal institutions are responsible for communicating their reviews to these bodies. TBS does not submit the Reviews to the committees on their behalf nor is it responsible to do so but communicates several reminders to federal institutions to forward their Reviews to these stakeholders.

• The article states that federal institutions are in violation of the Official Languages Act by failing to provide these reports to the two parliamentary committees and the OCOL.
• It identifies the Treasury Board Secretariat as one of those institutions that failed to share its review with the committees for the 2018-2019 reporting year.
• There is, in fact, no obligation under the Official Languages Act nor Treasury Board policies to provide these reports to the two parliamentary committees or the OCOL.
• That said, it is a long-standing practice in the interest of transparency, and TBS directs federal institutions to do so as a best practice.
• There is a legislative obligation for TBS to report to Parliament on behalf of the government, and it does so every year with the tabling of its Annual Review of Official Languages.
• While federal institutions are listed in the article as having failed to share their reviews with the parliamentary committees, it is important to note that they did formally submit their reviews to TBS as required to support the Annual Review of Official Languages.