Report Cards 2008-2009
In Canada, nearly 200 federal institutions are subject to the Official Languages Act. Each year, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages evaluates a certain number of these institutions to identify strengths and weaknesses in their implementation of the Act.
This year, 15 separate employers, that is, institutions whose employer is not the Treasury Board, were examined. The review of departments and agencies will be conducted next year, and this cycle will continue on a rotational basis. The Commissioner tailored his report cards for federal institutions to his proactive approach, which is aimed at achieving concrete and sustainable results.
Only one of the 15 institutions that were evaluated, the Canadian Tourism Commission, received an overall "exemplary" rating.
Unfortunately, the overall results for the 15 federal institutions that were evaluated this year are too similar to the results in previous annual reports: many institutions are still not adequately meeting their linguistic obligations and, generally speaking, they have not yet achieved the vision of linguistic duality pertaining to communications with and services to the public. There are still gaps in the active offer of bilingual services and the availability of services in the language of the linguistic minority.
Service to the public
The Commissioner’s observation results for 2008–2009 show that the active offer of bilingual services is a well established practice for service over the telephone at the institutions that were examined. In fact, 14 of these 15 institutions received a perfect score on this component.
However, the active offer of bilingual services in person is still neglected and, compared to the previous year, has even declined. Indeed, while in 2007–2008 employees made an active offer of service 23% of the time, this figure dropped to 14% this year. Incidentally, in his 2006–2007 annual report, the Commissioner recommended that "deputy heads in federal institutions ensure that front-line employees and all agents who respond to client enquiries actively offer services in both official languages at first contact in order to enhance the use of the public’s official language of choice." It seems clear that, except for active offer over the telephone, this recommendation has not been implemented by the majority of the 15 separate employers that were examined this year.
Moreover, both Anglophones and Francophones are confronted with the unacceptable fact that the expected service is not always accessible in the official language of their choice. Based on the Commissioner’s observations for this year, Francophones outside Quebec cannot be served in person in their language one out of five times. Although five federal institutions received perfect scores on this component, others, such as the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and, once again, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the National Film Board of Canada, will need to make more efforts to ensure service of equal quality in both official languages.
Separate employers should also improve the situation in a new area that was evaluated in the report cards for federal institutions this year: services offered by e-mail. The data collected in 2008–2009 shows that it is possible for both Anglophones and Francophones to receive service by e-mail from federal institutions in the language of their choice. However, since Francophones are generally served less quickly in this medium than Anglophones are, a lot of work is still required to provide service of equal quality.
Language of work
A vast majority of institutions have not yet created a workplace where their employees feel comfortable using either official language, and are encouraged to do so: French is not used as much as it should be as a language of work in federal offices located in the National Capital Region or outside Quebec. French also does not have its rightful place in communications between head offices of the federal government and its regional offices in Quebec, and English remains underused as a language of work in the Quebec offices of federal institutions.
According to a survey of separate employers’ staff, which involved the participation of Francophone employees in designated bilingual regions of Ontario, the National Capital Region and New Brunswick, as well as Anglophone employees in the designated bilingual regions of Quebec, only 69% of Francophones and 75% of Anglophones are generally satisfied with the language regime in their workplace. These results are essentially the same as those of last year.
Francophone employees primarily identify shortcomings related to the use of French as a language of meetings, written materials and training. Anglophones point to weaknesses related to the use of English for training and meetings.
Studies on language of work conducted by the Office of the Commissioner have shown that the institutions that have successfully established an organizational culture that is conducive to the use of both official languages are those in which management, particularly senior management, sets an example and demonstrates leadership in terms of linguistic duality. Public service renewal is an excellent opportunity to correct this type of weakness and thus transform the government culture. Doing so would ensure that linguistic duality is perceived as an essential component of good government service, as an engine for workplace effectiveness and productivity, and as a tool for understanding the country and Canadians, rather than as a burden.
Unfortunately, to date, federal institutions have not fully seized this opportunity.
Equitable participation
Institutions have continued to post very good results for equitable participation. However, the participation of Anglophones in Quebec remains a challenge for certain institutions, including Parks Canada (Anglophone participation rate of 1.7%) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (Anglophone participation rate of 3%).
Advancement of English and French
This year’s report card results are similar to last year’s results and, generally speaking, remain good. Institutions have persisted in their efforts. They have even made progress with respect to the promotion of linguistic duality, an area where the Commissioner reported in 2007–2008 that institutions must show more leadership. A few institutions obtained an "exemplary" rating: the Canada Revenue Agency, the National Capital Commission, the National Film Board of Canada, Parks Canada and the Canada Post Corporation.
The report cards show that non-designated institutions (i.e. those that are not required to submit an action plan to Canadian Heritage or to report on progress in the application of this section of the Act) often produced an action plan and implemented mechanisms to address their requirement. However, these institutions could further consult official language communities to learn more about their needs
