A report before the Canadian Parliament has highlighted a “glaring lack of bilingual capacity within the Federal Public Service” which is damaging the concept of a bilingual society.
Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada, Raymond Théberge (pictured) tabled the report which provides an overview of the current state of official languages and presents solutions to help the Government meet its language obligations.
Mr Théberge noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted systemic problems within Federal institutions.
“These institutions are having problems establishing proper language requirements, which is preventing them from providing effective services in both official languages and from creating a work environment that is conducive to the use of both English and French,” Mr Théberge said.
He said that Federal Public Servants did not always feel comfortable using the non-predominant official language at work.
“I am deeply concerned about the major impact the pandemic has also had on official language minority communities, particularly by weakening their community services sector as well as their arts and culture sectors,” Mr Théberge said.
“During times of crisis, the limited capacity of Federal institutions to provide services to the public in both official languages becomes apparent.”
The Commissioner said that during an emergency situation, many employees would be unable to respond to the public with the same attention to detail and quality of service in both official languages.
Ottawa, 4 June 2021
