1. Why is a Midterm Report being prepared on implementing the Action Plan for Official Languages, and what are its conclusions?
The Midterm Report on implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages is an Action Plan commitment. It will be followed by a final report in 2008, based on a formal evaluation to be conducted in 2007.
So the Midterm Report is not a formal evaluation of Action Plan results. It covers fiscal years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 and reveals general trends. To ensure transparency, the Government of Canada has offered to present communities’ assessments of the situation, so the Report reflects their views on the implementation. Their comments are generally positive.
The Midterm Report establishes that departments and agencies have put in place the required infrastructure. Dialogue has increased between federal institutions and their partners; minority official-language communities in particular are being consulted more often and on more files.
It notes a slow start on the education front:
discussions with the Council of Ministers of Education,
The Report highlights progress that has been made for communities, especially in the areas of early childhood development, health and justice. The basic infrastructure now exists to foster immigration to Francophone minority communities, and recent trends indicate an increase, from 3.1% in 2002 to 4.9% in 2004.
Communities have more information on federal economic development programs, and they are using them. The language industry has launched its association; the Language Technology Research Centre is under construction in Gatineau, on the site of the Université du Québec en Outaouais.
On the public service front, Action Plan measures are beginning to have
an influence on services to the public and the use of both languages in
the workplace. Nevertheless,
many public servants still have a limited understanding of the Official
Languages Act and what it means for them.
In addition, the
On horizontal coordination and accountability, the Midterm Report describes the new horizontal management framework which now underpins the Official Languages Program, that is, everything the Government is doing to comply with the Act and fulfil its commitments to promote linguistic duality in Canada. The opportunity to report on the impact of investments in this field much more thoroughly and clearly is especially important to me.
Implementation of the Action Plan for Official Languages is proceeding apace, generally speaking, albeit sometimes unevenly, and there is still a ways to go. The Government of Canada is determined to build on our successes and fix what is working less well.
The next steps will be the formal evaluation of the Action Plan in 2007 and the release of the final report in 2008.
2. What implementation strategy will PCO pursue to strengthen horizontal coordination of policies and programs that advance linguistic duality and directly affect minority official language communities?
The Official Languages Branch of the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat of the Privy Council Office will continue to support the Minister responsible for Official Languages in his efforts to coordinate the implementation of the Action Plan and the Government’s official languages policy.
The
cornerstone of the implementation strategy is the Result-based
Management and Accountability Framework (HRMAF), formalizing
interdepartmental coordination for the Official Languages Program. It
explains how resources, authorities and outputs at all levels are
aligned to advance the objectives and goals of
An interdepartmental committee is working to develop an appropriate reporting structure and to plan an evaluation strategy, including establishing the necessary links to a Post-Censal Survey, evaluations and audits related to federal initiatives in the Action Plan and the Official Languages Program in general.