2014–15 Report on results—Implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act

Public Works and Government Services Canada works proactively to ensure that official language minority communities (OLMCs) take full advantage of the programs and services we offer to Canadians. In addition, we ensure that our policies and programs reflect the needs of official language minority communities and promote linguistic duality in Canadian society. These requirements are outlined in section 41 of the Official Languages Act (the Act).

We are constantly looking for new and innovative approaches to support official language minority communities under Part VII of the Act. We also maintain ongoing relationships with national organizations that represent official language minority communities through the OLMC Secretariat.

Key initiatives in the development of official language minority communities

Language Portal of Canada

The Language Portal of Canada is a key initiative of the Translation Bureau (a special operating agency of Public Works and Government Services Canada) that contributes to the development of official language minority communities.

Official language minority communities are among the Portal's target groups. It provides these communities with language tools and resources in both official languages, announces activities and events that concern them, and gives them a platform to announce activities related to either official language. Of the 88 headline articles posted on the Portal in 2014–15, a third came from official language minority communities.

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 provinces on the language situation in Canada.

In 2014–15, the Portal had 4.2 million page views; a 12% increase from the previous year.

The Portal contributed significantly to the success of Les Rendez-vous de la francophonie 2015 by preparing dictations for the "Write it right!" contest and sending out tweets and promotional messages.

The Portal gives a number of Canadian organizations, including the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers, Canadian Youth for French and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick, the opportunity to contribute articles or by announcing pertinent events and news.

TERMIUM Plus®

TERMIUM Plus® is 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 a wide variety of leading edge fields like technology and science.

In addition, TERMIUM Plus® contains a unique array of 16 linguistic resources in English or French (conjugation, grammar tools, dictionary of suggested equivalents, language advice and others). There is nothing like it in Canada and the entire package is available for free online.

This outstanding collection is especially helpful in areas of Canada where official language minority communities have access to few local language resources. Used in conjunction with the Portal, which posts articles related to official language minority communities with links to topics that they find of particular interest, TERMIUM Plus® enables these communities to take advantage of a set of language tools and content that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.

Office of Small and Medium Enterprises

Some of the Department's regional offices participate actively in events organized by OLMCs as a means of determining these communities' needs and supporting small and medium businesses to engage in commerce with the Federal Government.

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Western region operated a kiosk and provided information sessions entitled "Comment faire affaire avec le gouvernement du Canada" at the Congrès annuel de la francophonie albertaine 2014 and at the Rendez-vous économique de l'Alberta 2014. Approximately 150 visitors attended each event. Most of the attendees operate their own small and medium business, some of which are suppliers for the Federal Government.

Most of the suppliers are based in Alberta, but some travelled from Quebec and British Columbia. There were also representatives from other federal departments, including Western Economic Diversification Canada, Health Canada and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada.

In the Pacific region, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises is actively engaging the Francophone community to promote business opportunities with the Government of Canada. This includes participating in events with the Francophone Chamber of Commerce, the Société de développement économique de la Colombie-Britannique as well as the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique.

In the Quebec region, the Office presented the seminar "How to do Business with the Government" to English-expression business associations. Since 2011, the agreement between the Office and the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation has been ongoing, but there are discussions on how to improve the collaboration agreement.

Official language minority media

The Department provides planning and coordination services on advertising to federal institutions. In this context, we ensure that media plans are compliant with sections 11, 30 and 41 of the Act. Government advertisements in the official language minority media is used to share information about the government with official language minority communities while generating revenue for minority media.

In 2014–15, spending on advertising in minority media amounted to $429,609 in the written press, to $191,171 in radio and $79,514 in television. (These figures are considered preliminary until the official publication of the annual report on advertising.)

Official language minority communities support programs

Hotel Card Program

The Hotel Card Program allows official language minority community organizations to benefit from the same reduced rates for accommodation as the federal government in participating hotels in Canada. In 2014–15, 265 community organizations continued to benefit from the program and 5 new organizations joined.

Official language minority community organizations benefited from reduced rates for a total of 916 nights during business trips. This program makes it more cost-effective for them to take part in networking events, as well as regional and national meetings.

Translation support service

The Department offers a translation support service to national official language minority community umbrella organizations and their members. A budget of $12,000 is available to organizations to support their translation costs. This service helps organizations save on operating budgets.

Eligible organizations have reported that the program allows them to engage in dialogue with citizens and provincial and territorial ministers in the other official language. They have also indicated that the support service increases opportunities for partnerships with other government bodies, as well as community and private sector partners.

Consolidation of pay services

As part of the Initiative for the Transformation of Pay Administration, the administration of pay services to 46 departments and agencies are gradually being transferred to the Pay Centre Services in Miramichi, New Brunswick. Official language minority communities in the region were invited to attend information sessions on employment opportunities. As part of its recruitment efforts of bilingual candidates, the Department participated in career fairs on college campuses in Quebec and in New Brunswick.

Key initiative in the promotion of English and French in Canadian society

Language Portal of Canada

The Language Portal of Canada is a key initiative as part of the Roadmap 2013–18 which contributes to the promotion of English and French in Canadian society.

The Portal helps Canadians communicate in both official languages, disseminates and promotes language resources developed in Canada, and highlights Canadian expertise in the area of language. It provides Canadians with a single point of access, free of charge, to a wide range of language tools and resources:

The Portal supports the Government of Canada's commitment to promote and support learning the official languages and linguistic duality through an extensive use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.).

The new Portal Ambassador initiative invites Canadians to share the Portal's bilingual language tools and resources within their social network to promote Canada's linguistic duality. There are currently over 60 ambassadors, including Via Rail, the Canadian Editors' Association and Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The Portal's quizzes provide users with a fun way to test their knowledge of English and French. These tools are excellent resources for teachers who want to help students perfect their use of Canada's official languages. More than 765,000 pages were viewed in this section of the Portal in 2014–15.