Dateline: 04/12/03
The Canadian federal government has a new policy statement on bilingualism in Canada, and over the next five years will put more than $750 million into implementing it. The Action Plan for Official Languages released March 12, 2003 is designed to renew and update the commitment to the principle of English and French as the two official languages of Canada.
The first Official Languages Act was passed in Canada in 1969, but there has been growing concern in the federal government that with budget cutting over the last decade, the commitment to bilingualism has been losing steam. The official languages action plan is designed to remedy that.
The official languages action plan concentrates on three main areas:
- the education system in Canada
- community programs
- the Canadian federal public service.
Bilingualism in the Education System in Canada
The bilingualism action plan sets the following objectives for education in Canada:
- increase the proportion of eligible students enrolled in French schools outside Quebec from 68 percent to 80 percent in ten years
- double the number of young Canadians who know the other official language from 24 percent to 50 percent in ten years. One out of every two young Canadians should be able to speak both English and French in ten years.
- increase the quality of language instruction, including making it more accessible
- increase the number of language instructors
- provide more exchange programs and bursaries.
The federal government will add $381.5 million in funding over five years, most of it going to a new minority-language fund (for the language of the community). About a third will go to second-language instruction.
Bilingualism in Community Programs
The federal government will invest $269.3 million over five years for community programs in support of official languages. The purpose of these community programs is to ensure that communities use their language not only in school but in daily life. The money will be allocated as follows:
- $22 million for early childhood development
- $119 million in health field
- $44.4 million for economic development
- $43.3 million for access to justice
- $9 million for immigrant integration.
Bilingualism in the Canadian Federal Public Service
The plan is to make official languages in the federal public service a priority again - including providing better service to the public and making wider use of both official languages in the workplace. The bilingualism action plan includes:
- hiring more bilingual employees
- improving language training
- putting the emphasis on providing better access to language courses at an early stage in the career path
- retaining and improving language skills.
Policies are being reworked to ensure that language skills are considered prerequisites of senior level positions in the federal public service.
The federal government has already started getting tough on bilingualism with senior public servants. In 1998, senior executives in the federal public service were given until March 31, 2003 to become bilingual. About 200 or nine percent of the designated senior federal bureaucrats failed their tests and face job transfers or substantial performance pay cuts.
