Coordination Strategy

1. The Group of Ministers Responsible

The purpose of the Accountability and Coordination Framework planned in the Action Plan for Official Languages, is to strengthen horizontal coordination for the Official Languages Act as a whole. The Minister responsible for Official Languages is to coordinate the Official Languages program and implementation of the Action Plan, as well as support those ministers spearheading specific initiatives of the Plan.

In that context, the Minister works with the following departments:

• the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who is responsible for Part VII of the Act;

• the Minister of Justice, who guides the Government in interpreting language rights and, with the Action Plan, reviews policies and programs to identify legal implications;

• the President of the Treasury Board, who is responsible for bilingualism in the public service and who coordinates actions relating to Parts IV, V and VI of the Act;

• the Ministers who spearhead initiatives within the Action Plan, including the Ministers of Social Development, Human Resources and Skills Development, Industry, and Citizenship and Immigration.

The activities of the committee are designed to support the Minister responsible for Official Languages and the other ministers effectively. 

• It is tasked with promoting greater accountability for all provisions of the Act;

• it highlights the links between the different parts of the Act and the Action Plan;

• it supports ministers involved in the implementation of the Plan and in the communication of results to Canadians.

The Minister responsible and the Committee of Deputy Ministers on Official Languages are supported by the Official Languages Branch (OLB) at Intergovernmental Affairs of the Privy Council Office. Among other things, the OLB will analyse memoranda to Cabinet and draft policies with respect to their impact on official languages and community development.

Departments and agencies cooperate with the Committee of Deputy Ministers on Official Languages (CDMOL), for example, by bringing files they deem relevant to the Committee’s attention including litigations, conducting analyses as required and undertaking appropriate consultations in their respective fields.

It is imperative for the Government to adopt internal mechanisms to ensure the consistency of its official languages policies and programs. It is also important that those support mechanisms allow for ongoing information-sharing among federal institutions and lead them to work together for the benefit of linguistic duality. This administrative framework is designed to strengthen horizontal coordination for the Act as a whole, so as to decompartmentalize the different components, supporting the Minister responsible for Official Languages and his colleagues at Treasury Board, Canadian Heritage and Justice. It clarifies for federal institutions the mechanisms in place to support them in carrying out their duties.

In Year 1 of the Action Plan’s implementation, coordination activities centred on forging and strengthening partnerships with key institutions and developing and improving coordination mechanisms, programs and services at different levels of operation. Development of a Horizontal Results-based Management and Accountability Framework (HRMAF), headed by federal institutions with key responsibilities for official languages, began in 2003-2004.

Horizontal performance measurement strategies will be developed with respect to the impact of government official languages programs and activities on Anglophone and Francophone minorities and Canadian society as a whole. In that context, the evaluation of the federal government’s Official Languages program, including the preparation of interim and final reports to be presented in 2005 and 2008 respectively, will be the product of a collaboration and coordination effort involving federal partners.

In light of federal institutions’ responsibilities for the development of Anglophones and Francophone minorities, it is important above all that they be consistently consulted in developing the Government’s directions and priorities on linguistic duality; that they be informed of actions being considered to address those priorities; and that they be kept abreast of measures taken and results achieved.

This consultation process, called for by the communities, is designed to :

• better coordinate the policy dimension of questions relating to official languages and the implementation of the Action Plan;

• strengthen existing ties between the federal government and official-language communities;

• better identify the policy concerns, needs and expectations of official-language minority communities and ways through which federal, provincial and territorial governments can help meet those needs.

This consultation mechanism fosters the emergence of productive exchanges among the different organizations, by giving official-language communities a special opportunity to highlight their specific interests. It fosters close monitoring of the evolution of the situation and government accountability for results, while strengthening the partnership between governments and communities, in a spirit of cooperation and consultation.

To act on the Government commitment to increase the level of consultation with official-language communities, the Official Languages Branch of the Privy Council Office has developed a consultation cycle which provides for two series of annual meetings with minority communities: one in the spring with senior officials in departments affected by the Action Plan, and another in the fall with the ministers of those institutions and other stakeholders involved in the field of official languages.

For the advancement of English and French, the Official Languages Act commits the federal government to the following:

• "to enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development; and fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society" (section 41);

• the Minister of Canadian Heritage "in consultation with other ministers of the Crown, shall encourage and promote a coordinated approach to the implementation by federal institutions of the commitments set out in section 41" (section 42);

• "the Minister of Canadian Heritage shall take such measures as that Minister considers appropriate to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society." (section 43)

• and each year the Minister of Canadian Heritage is required to submit an annual report to Parliament on the matters relating to official languages for which he/she is responsible. (section 44).

Increasing the strategic capacity and consistency of government bodies is a similar challenge for each of them. To achieve this goal, the federal government has arranged to gather available information outside of the National Capital. To that end, setting up effective mechanisms, promoting consultation and forging closer relations among government departments, agencies and communities, helps raise institutions’ awareness of government priorities, and thus enhance their capacity to address those priorities.

Since they were established some 20 years ago, the regional federal councils have proven to be a very useful forum, encouraging information sharing between participating departments and members and serving as one of the most optimal mechanisms to help departments manage horizontal issues in the regions. The councils serve as a single window, as it were, for access to the federal government, thus playing a major role as facilitators for ministers.

Each federal council serves as a unifying element within federal institutions. In such a context, federal councils are a key instrument for implementing the Action Plan for Official Languages. Initiatives have already been undertaken, including a symposium on official languages in October 2001. Other tangible measures have helped strengthen the place of official languages : better understanding of the Official Languages program on the part of federal employees working in the regions, better language training for employees, and increased efforts for the promotion and development of minority official-language communities.

This synergy with respect to the Action Plan for Official Languages, the contacts established with federal, provincial and territorial public servants, and the ties forged within communities are key assets for achieving our Government’s objective. Federal council have a privileged opportunity to build on existing coordination in various areas highlighted by the Action Plan : education, early childhood development, health, justice, cultural development, the new economy, etc.

Each federal council is divided into sub-committees, including one on official languages. To cite but one example, the Quebec Federal Council, which comprises more than 30 departments, plays a leading role, as do employees of councils elsewhere in the country, in safeguarding linguistic duality. In the specific case of Quebec, efforts have been made to increase English-language services and to remedy the chronic under-representation of Anglophone employees within federal departments in Quebec, a reality the Quebec Federal Council is addressing with determination.

The Official Languages division of the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada has worked closely with the chairs of official languages committees of federal councils to help achieve the objectives set by the Government of Canada with regard to linguistic duality.

Treasury Board Secretariat site for Federal Regional Councils