2013-2014 Report on Results – Implementation of Section 41 of the Official Languages Act

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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 OLMC as outlined in the Official Languages Act.

PWGSC is constantly on the lookout for new and innovative approaches to support OLMC 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 OLMC 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)

Human Resources Branch

The Secretariat, OLMC, maintains ongoing relationships with national organizations representing OLMC: the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA), the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC), the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité (RDÉE) Canada and the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). The Department's 2011-2014 Action Plan on the Implementation of Section 41 of the Official Languages Act reflects the needs and priorities expressed by these organizations.

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 2013-2014, 281 organizations benefited from reduced rates in more than 798 participating hotels across the country.

Tangible impacts: OLMC organizations were able to benefit from reduced rates for accommodation during business trips. They can participate to a greater extent, thanks to cost savings, to networking activities and to regional and national meetings.

Translation support Program

The Department offers a Translation Support Program to the national OLMC umbrella organizations and their members. A $12,000.00 budget was made available to organizations in order to support their translation costs.

Tangible impacts: 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.

The organizations have also indicated that the support service increases opportunities for partnerships with other government bodies and with community sector and private sector partners.

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME) was created in 2005 within Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to advocate on behalf of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in federal procurement.

OSME improves SMEs access to government contract opportunities by:

reducing procurement barriers;
simplifying the contracting process;
providing advice to SMEs wishing to do business with the government;
collaborating to improve procurement policies and best practices;
working with SMEs to ensure their concerns are brought forward and heard.

The OSME supports small and medium enterprises by working to reduce barriers and by simplifying requirements for SMEs that want to do business with the Government of Canada (GoC).

OSME's Mission:

Encourage and assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the federal government procurement process;
Improve the links between supply and demand and influencing change within government acquisitions; and
Conduct economic analysis of Government of Canada procurement and the private sector.

Quebec Region

In the Quebec Region, the OSME identified 18 targeted awareness activities in English that were attended by 180 people from the Anglophone community.

The OSME in the Quebec Region also identified 28 activities in total held for a bilingual audience (English- and French speakers together), which were attended by 265 people overall. These activities included emails, telephone calls received and answered, participation at trade fairs, group presentations and one-on-one meetings.

OSME made presentations to the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC); Iranian Business Networking Group (IBNG); Ujamaa Initiative for Black Entrepreneurship (UIBE) (Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Association)

Tangible impacts: OSME have adjusted its service offer so that it accurately reflects the environment and the regions that have an official language minority community. In doing so, it is key to have a partnership with a dynamic organization from the environment.

Western Region Office of Small and Medium Enterprise (OSME)

As part of the new Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS) rollout, information and bilingual literature was provided at all events to:

le Conseil développement économique de l'Alberta,
Conseil de la Coopération de la Saskatchewan (CCS),
Agence nationale et internationale du Manitoba (ANIM),
Chambre de commerce francophone de Saint-Boniface,
Conseil de développement économique des Territoires du Nord-Ouest (CDETNO),
Chambre de Commerce francophone de Saint-Boniface and ANIM Conseil in Alberta Northwest Territories (NWT) Conseil,
Alliance Française Calgary,
Alliance Française Edmonton,
Canadienne Française de l'Alberta.

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

National Capital Region (NCR) Real Property Branch

As part of the ongoing management of the commercial portfolio and in partnership with the National Capital Commission, the department of Canadian Heritage and the Translation Bureau, PWGSC National Capital Area (NCA) Operations and NCA Portfolio Management continue to monitor compliance as well as address any complaints and/or deficiencies on an as required basis.

NCA Portfolio Management Commercial Operations and NCA Operations, in various capacities, monitor and ensure lease compliance by visiting commercial retail locations to ensure they comply with their linguistic obligations and, deliver associated notices as required.

NCA Portfolio Management Commercial Operations has diligently strived to update the official languages clauses upon expiry of the non-compliant commercial leases.

Although there still exist older agreements that do not contain the Official Languages provision, this clause is included in agreements at every opportunity for lease amendment or renewal.

Official languages Kits are also distributed to all new tenants.

Integrated Services Branch

PWGSC provides information and assistance to government departments to help them better understand which Official Languages (OL) media to use to reach OLMC. Our goal is to ensure GoC advertising reaches OLMC so these communities can learn and benefit from GoC programs and services. We also assist OL minority media in better understanding the GoC advertising management process with a view to maximizing their opportunities to receive GoC advertising.

In 20132014, the Government of Canada spent $1.22 million on advertising in OLMC media (estimate only, at April 15, 2014).

Expenditures - OL Print Media: $434,725
Expenditures Radio: $633,799
Expenditures Television: $80,918
Total: $1,224,693

Tangible impacts: The placing of government advertising enables OL minority media to disseminate information from the Government of Canada to the communities they serve while generating the advertising revenue that is essential for sustaining their activities.

Accounting Banking and Compensation

In the context of the Consolidation of Pay Services Project and specifically for the recruitment and outreach efforts to hire an additional 207 employees for the Pay Centre, we have engaged with the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick which is an organization dedicated to promote the rights and interests of the minority French language community. The Project has consistently reached out to the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick to promote the employment opportunities at the Pay Centre by sharing tools available for prospective applicants to assist with their application process as well as specific details on when and where hiring posters would be advertised.

Translation Bureau

The Translation Bureau continued to manage the Language Portal of Canada, a Bureau initiative that was originally assigned as part of the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013 and renewed in the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages 2013-2018, intended as much to inform the OLMC as to reflect their activities and achievements.

In 20132014, the Language Portal of Canada had nearly 480 new additions. Each week, new items and games are added to enhance the Portal's content. Furthermore, headline articles are published each week on language-related activities and events held in the provinces and territories in one of the official languages.

OLMC are among the Portal's target groups. The Portal provides OLMC with language tools and resources in both official languages, announces activities and events that concern them, and provides them with a window so that they, too, can announce activities related to either official language. Out of the 190 headline articles posted on the Portal in 20132014, 39 were from OLMC.

The Portal offers a wide range of links to websites related to Anglophone and Francophone minority communities, language training offered in Canada, Canadian language tools and reference works, and resources and articles from the provinces on the language situation in Canada. The various sections of the Portal now contain over 1,900 links. It also now offers its users a selection of resources of particular use at school (for teachers and students), at work and at home.

The Bureau worked on the most recent Rendez-vous de la Francophonie (RVF): its employees prepared three dictations—two in French and one in English—which have been posted on the RVF website, under Contests.

TERMIUM® represents also an ongoing Translation Bureau success story: a specialized terminology bank available to everyone in Canada. The bank includes vocabulary not only specific to the federal government and communications with citizens, but also in a wide variety of leading edge technology and science fields, for example. In addition, it contains a unique array of 16 linguistic resources in English or French (conjugator, grammar tools, dictionary of suggested equivalents, language advice and so on). There is nothing like it in Canada and the entire package is available free of charge on the Web.

This outstanding collection may be especially helpful in areas of Canada where official language minority communities (OLMC) have access to very few language resources locally. Used in conjunction with the Portal, which posts headlines related to OLMC with links to topics that they find of particular interest, TERMIUM® enables OLMC to take advantage of a set of language tools and content that would otherwise be totally inaccessible to them.

The Language Portal of Canada is a key initiative of the Translation Bureau which contributes to the development of OLMC.

In 2013-2014, the Portal had 3.75 million page views. This impressive number of hits confirms the success of this initiative.

Atlantic Region

PWGSC Atlantic took part in helping to organize the New Brunswick (NB) Federal Council Official Languages Week in May 2013 through the New Brunswick Federal Council. There was collaboration with minority language community representatives including an open panel discussions that took place between GoC members and the OLMC on how to work together to strengthen the use of both official languages in the community and how the GoC can work better with OLMC.

There were several events throughout the week that took place that were open to federal employees located in New Brunswick promoting the use of both official languages including information booths on language training tools, open panel discussions between Federal employees and members of OLMC. Anissa Aldridge, the former OL Advisor for the Atlantic Region, co-chaired the organizing committee.

The tangible results of this initiative were the recognition and use of both official languages throughout the week among Federal Departments and Agencies as well as strengthening working relationships between the GoC and OLMC.

The Atlantic Region's OSME team continued to provide bilingual services at various events throughout the region in 2013-14. They shared information on how to do business with the federal government and information on the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP).

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Key achievements with a regional impact

National Capital Region Real Property Branch

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.

Atlantic Region

PWGSC Atlantic would like to highlight the cross-collaboration that took place between the Nova Scotia (NS) and NB Federal Councils to organize Linguistic Duality Day 2013. It took extra effort to ensure the same events were taking place across two provinces during the day at the same time with a high participation rate among the Departments and Agencies who participated in the events.

Quebec Region: Matane

The Cheque Redemption Control Directorate (CRCD) is increasing its visibility with the Anglophone population of the Lower St. Lawrence by sharing information with the different school boards and participating in various employment conferences. We are constantly on the lookout for exchange opportunities with Anglophone communities and will hold discussions with cégeps in the Gaspé Peninsula that have a significant number of bilingual students.

The recruitment of bilingual individuals is a particular challenge because of the CRCD's geographic location. As a result, our strategy for addressing this challenge is to provide coaching and language test preparation activities to employees interested in testing their bilingualism level. The CRCD has several staff members who benefited from this initiative and are now considered to be bilingual.

The opportunities for bilingual employment created by the CRCD encourage the local population to become aware of the importance of the two official languages.

Western Region

One key achievement to highlight within the Western Region would be the ongoing support of Western Region employees who continually support Official Languages priorities despite being a unilingual region and geographically dispersed. The region encompasses three provinces and one territory with many OL minority communities across the region, all of which have different priorities and challenges.

Western Region is fortunate to have a concentrated group of volunteers who are both personally and professionally involved in maintaining the various networks, participation in OLMC organized activities, such as the Alberta Rond—Point Conference, and are ready to support the region's commitments to Official Languages. The length of the list of activities and events identified in previous questions is thanks to their commitment. For example the highlighted key regional activity was a success as a direct result of one of our committed public servants who saw the opportunity to "step up" to support Official Languages and help the region fulfill our obligations to OLMC in addition to performing his regular duties in another section.