Question Period Note: 2024-25 Official Languages Commissioner Report

The Commissioner of Official Languages has tabled his 2024-2025 Annual Report. What is the reaction of the President of the Treasury Board?

• We thank the Official Languages Commissioner for his report.
• The Government is taking action to promote official languages and ensure that the Official Languages Act is implemented and respected across all federal institutions.
• Most recently, we’ve raised the language requirements for managers in bilingual regions so that employees can work in the language of their choice. The implementation of this new requirement will be monitored closely, as the Commissioner has recommended.
• We’re also reviewing how bilingual services are delivered across the country. This work is expected to result in hundreds of new offices offering services in both official languages.

If Pressed

• My department has engaged with the Commissioner on the AI Strategy for the Federal Public Service 2025-2027. We reflected his comments in the final strategy and are working on an AI-powered translation tool in collaboration with the Translation Bureau.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) has reviewed the 2024-2025 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL). Below are the key mentions in the report that are relevant to TBS.
• The report contains four recommendations; one targets the President of the Treasury Board (TB).
• Several TBS initiatives are positively highlighted, one mention is critical of TBS.
• The main positive mentions of TBS are as follows:
• The increase in the minimum level of second language proficiency from BBB to CBC for bilingual supervisory positions in designated bilingual regions for language-of-work purposes is applauded; the Commissioner has been calling for this change since 2016.
• The launch of TBS’s Official Languages Accountability and Reporting Framework is
presented as positive, indicating though that it could have gone further.
• Regarding the development of Part VII Regulations (community vitality, protection and promotion of French) the Commissioner notes TBS’s commitment and that the Commissioner had the opportunity to participate in the consultations.
• The Commissioner also mentions TBS’s Official Languages Regulations Reapplication Exercise (OLRRE) which is expected to result in approximately 700 newly designated bilingual offices.

The Commissioner’s recommendation to the President of the Treasury Board reads as follows:
• I recommend that by September 30, 2026, the President of the Treasury Board implement a monitoring mechanism for federal institutions to ensure that they take and maintain measures to protect the language rights of employees in designated bilingual regions who are supervised by incumbents of unilingual positions or by incumbents of bilingual positions who do not meet the CBC second-language requirement.
Regarding this recommendation, TBS already has several monitoring and accountability tools in place that will allow it to implement the recommendation by the target date.

The AI Strategy emphasizes the need to mitigate the bias present in AI related to official languages. The use of AI should support, rather than replace, language learning and the effective use of both official languages. The Strategy promotes the design of AI tools that enhance, rather than hinder, the advancement of bilingualism and the equal representation of Canada's two official language communities.
The Translation Bureau’s self-service language hub pilot project is the Lighthouse project of the AI Strategy will be expanded for use across all of government. These tools include automated translation services that can provide instant translations of documents. Operating in a secure cloud environment, with all data centralized at the Translation Bureau and hosted in Canada, this service will provide a secure and vetted one-stop shop for language needs. For the government, the availability of a vetted automated tool will reduce translation costs without compromising security, sovereignty, or product quality.

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