Report on Results - Official Languages Act

Review on Official Languages 2012-2013, Part VII (abridged version)

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) proactively ensures that official language minority communities (OLMC) take full advantage of programs and services offered by the Department to Canadians. In addition, the Department ensures that its policies and programs reflect the needs of OLMCs as outlined in the Official Languages Act.

PWGSC is constantly on the lookout for new and innovative approaches to support OLMCs under Part VII of the Official Languages Act. A preliminary consultation was conducted, along with Real Property Branch, with national organizations on possibilities to develop mechanisms to inform OLMCs on the disposal of surplus federal real property.

Key initiatives in relation to the development of official-language minority communities
(Francophones outside Quebec and Anglophones in Quebec)

Hotel Card Program

The Hotel Card Program allows OLMC organizations to benefit from the same reduced rates for accommodation as the federal government in participating hotels in Canada. The program was renewed for a period of five years, from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015.

In 2011-2013, 291 organizations benefited from reduced rates in more than 935 participating hotels across the country.

Translation Support Program

The Department offers a Translation Support Program to the national OLMC umbrella organizations and their members.

Eligible organizations have reported that the program allows them to engage in dialogue with citizens in the other official language and communicate with the provincial and with territorial governments.

Translation Bureau

The Translation Bureau has continued to coordinate the meetings of the National Terminology Council (NTC), which brings together specialists from the ten provincial and three territorial governments.

The Translation Bureau has also continued to support Promoting Access to Justice in both Official Languages, in conjunction with the Department of Justice Canada and centres for jurilinguistics in some Canadian provinces.

The Consolidation of Pay Services Project

The Consolidation of Pay Services Project is committed to the development of official language minority communities, including employing a diverse workforce at the Public Service Pay Centre in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Project adopted a comprehensive and inclusive outreach /engagement approach to hiring the first and second waves of employees of the Pay Centre, ensuring a good balance of linguistic capabilities to provide services nationally to clients in the language of their choice. A total of 28 information sessions were conducted in 19 cities and regions across the country, including Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and throughout the Maritimes.

Office of Small and Medium Enterprises

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME), Quebec Region, has had a memorandum of understanding with the CEDEC Small Business Network since 2011 for the delivery of services to the English-language business community across Quebec in partnership with a dynamic association.

The partnership agreement between the two organizations also provides for the delivery of specially tailored workshops and participation in a discussion forum for business people. It also enables successful collaboration on economic facilitation activities in the regions.

Government Publicity Program in OL Minority Medias

In 2012–2013, the Government of Canada spent $1.22 million on advertising in OLMC media (estimate only, at April 15, 2013).

Expenditures
OL print media	$732,451
Radio	$161,687
Television	$330,555
Total:	$1,224,693

PWGSC in the Regions

Two seminars on how to do business with the Government of Canada were provided by the OSME.

Reaching 93 suppliers, the impact of the seminar on the Francophone community is mostly economic, with more suppliers now having increased information on the federal procurement process. In addition, PWGSC Pacific, through OSME, continues to promote services such as MERX and the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP).

The Western Region actively engages in activities which promote the development of official language minority communities by participating in inter-departmental committees, attending activities organized by the community and making presentations at various symposiums and workshops.

Examples include:

• Interaction – 2012 - Alberta
• Canadian Corporate Counsel Association
• Centrallia: Association nationale et internationale du Manitoba which hosted the second global tri-lingual Business to Business Forum.
• OSME participated with an information booth and was able to meet one-on-one with 18 companies.
• Rendez-vous économique 2012, a business conference organized by the Conseil de développement économique de l’Alberta.

In Quebec, 12% of our public awareness activities are in English; 11% of the people served in person are English speaking; and 16.5% of emails and telephone calls received and answered were from Anglophones.

Key initiatives in relation to the promotion of English and French in Canadian society

Translation Bureau

The Translation Bureau has continued to develop and manage the Language Portal of Canada, a Translation Bureau initiative that falls under the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008−2013 and is intended as much to inform the OLMCs as to reflect their activities and achievements.

The Portal has a host of links to web sites related to, among other things, Anglophone and Francophone minority communities, language training offered in Canada, Canadian language tools and references, and resources and articles from the provinces on the language situation in Canada. The different sections of the Portal now contain over 2,037 links and users are offered a pre-selection of resources that are particularly useful at school (for teachers and students), at work and at home.

The Portal also has interactive features (page sharing, notification by email, RSS feed) to ensure broader dissemination of its content.

In 2012−2013, the Translation Bureau also undertook some promotional activities in regard to the Language Portal of Canada, to increase its visibility among all Canadians and thus increase the number of visits made to it.

The Translation Bureau rolled out the Government of Canada’s first ever mobile linguistic application, which allows smart phone users in Canada to consult TERMIUM^®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank, using a specially tailored interface.

Promotion of linguistic duality among commercial tenants

A strategy for the promotion of linguistic duality among commercial tenants in the National Capital Region is being implemented to promote the use of both official languages by commercial tenants located in buildings managed by PWGSC in the National Capital Region and adopt an official procedure to achieve this objective.

Public Service Renewal in Quebec

PWGSC efforts to foster the hiring of English-speaking Quebecers continue, though in a limited manner given the current context, to address the under-representation of employees whose first official language is English in its Quebec workforce (except in the NCR).

Key achievements with a regional impact

Accounting, Banking and Compensation Branch

Outreach activities completed by the Public Service Pay Centre as part of it effort to recruit bilingual candidates.

One initiative that could be highlighted is the outreach activities completed by the Public Service Pay Centre as part of it effort to recruit bilingual candidates. In August 2012, The Director of the Pay Centre visited 11 francophone organizations located in surrounding municipalities adjacent to the Pay Centre (Miramichi, New Brunswick). These organizations were targeted for their involvement with francophone communities. These meetings provided a better knowledge of the Pay Centre and its requirement for bilingual capacity within these communities. As a result of these visits, the Consolidation of Pay Service Project, who is providing support in the recruitment of personnel for the Pay Centre, noticed an increase in the number of application from candidates who had French as a first language.