Questions on official languages in the federal public service
- Do I have to be bilingual to work for the federal government?
- Are Anglophones and Francophones well represented in federal institutions?
Do I have to be bilingual to work for the federal government?
Not necessarily. Only 40% of positions in the federal public service are designated bilingual. In some provinces, the percentage of bilingual positions is less than 4%.
For more information on the language requirements of positions and the hiring process in the federal government, please consult the Public Service Commission
and the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer Web sites.
Are Anglophones and Francophones well represented in federal institutions?
The balance between English- and French-speaking Canadians in the federal government is fairly representative of the population as a whole.
However, Anglophones are underrepresented in Quebec and Francophones are underrepresented in the management, technical, scientific and professional groups.
The Act recognizes that it is not realistic to expect every federal institution to have a workforce that exactly reflects the linguistic make-up of the country. For example, the Cape Breton Development Corporation in Nova Scotia serves an overwhelmingly English-speaking clientele; for that reason, almost all its staff is Anglophone. Similarly, employees of the Quebec-based Laurentian Pilotage Authority are mostly Francophone. The RCMP performs police work in all provinces and territories except Ontario and Quebec, which have their own provincial police. Therefore, the fact that approximately 83% of RCMP constables are English-speaking is a reflection of the public it serves. Except for New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual, the RCMP operates in areas where most of the population is Anglophone.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Web site provides statistics on employment in the federal public service.