Charlottetown, May 17, 2006
Bringing Part VII to Life
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to start by thanking you for inviting me and for being here today. The implementation of Part VII is something I have been looking forward to since the beginning of my term as Commissioner almost seven years ago.
That is why I am especially pleased to finally see Part VII on equal footing with the other parts of the Act, such as those pertaining to language of service or language of work. Although a number of institutions have already taken action to foster the development of official language communities and promote linguistic duality, we must now all work to bring Part VII to life.
Many people have come to give you their point of view on the new Part VII. It is now my turn. Because of my specific role, I have a different point of view of what you need to undertake, although there are similarities.
An Agent of Change
Some people still see my role as mainly that of a linguistic ombudsman or auditor. I see it as a much broader role, however. I must wear many different hats at the same time, as stipulated by the Official Languages Act. Today, I am wearing my educator and promoter hat.
Briefly, my role is that of an agent of change. Last week, when I tabled my annual report, I asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fulfill his role, namely, to quickly implement the legislative amendments adopted by Parliament last fall. The Government’s firm commitment to increased accountability within the federal administration must also extend to official languages.
It is in this context that I gave the government some homework. Today, I will talk to you about my first two assignments because their main purpose is to help the government navigate the road ahead.
Vitality, Promotion and Positive Measures
1. Vitality
First, I’d like to talk about vitality. This concept is central to the actions required by Part VII.
Aline Visser, vice president of the Quebec English School Boards Association, proposed one of our best definitions of community vitality during a forum that we organized on this topic last year. She said:
“Perfect vitality is like an illusive dream. I say this because we believe vitality to be an optimum state of existence of an official language minority community. That is never reachable. It is an ongoing process. Research will lead to a greater understanding of vitality.”1
The new wording of Part VII requires that all institutions must take positive measures to support community vitality. But what exactly constitutes a positive measure? In my view, it is a measure tailored to each community’s particular circumstances in order to advance toward the true equality of English and French.
Federal institutions must therefore review their policies and programs in light of the new provisions of the Act and, if necessary, adapt them so that linguistic minorities receive the same benefits as the majority. As established by the Supreme Court of Canada, the goal is equality of results. Hence, government actions must benefit each group. What you need to do is to ask yourselves if your interventions need to be tailored specifically for official language communities. It implies more thinking, more research, sometimes an impact study. To do so, institutions must develop closer ties with the communities and treat them as teammates in achieving greater vitality. This is my first assignment for the government.
You must think of citizens as true partners. If the ultimate goal is equality of linguistic communities, this approach implies working together with communities and other stakeholders, including the research community, to define appropriate vitality indicators. Identifying and monitoring these indicators is a key element in a sustained approach to development. If you are to be accountable, you need data to monitor progress. Research is at the core if this process.
I am speaking to the right people today, since most of you are managers. As the people responsible for policies and programs, you know better than anyone the impact of your institutions’ activities on the vitality of official language communities. Many of you have already established models of co-operation that can serve as examples for similar institutions, and some of your programs already respect the spirit of Part VII. I am thinking particularly of national initiatives in health and immigration.
Let us take the example of an important sector for official language communities in which many of you work: economic development programs. You will need to start to include in your analyses issues related to official language community vitality, with an emphasis on tangible results.
2. Promoting Canada’s Linguistic Duality
The other assignment for the government that affects you directly deals with promoting linguistic duality.
I am recommending that the Minister for Official Languages initiate a dialogue to identify what the government must do to fully integrate the promotion of linguistic duality into its operations. In today’s diverse Canada, this approach must include all players in society.
Promotion is the poor cousin of Part VII, the one that institutions tend to forget.
The majority needs to be involved. Linguistic duality has to be promoted using existing networks: school boards, chambers of commerce, etc. It also has to be promoted within your own organizations, so that your employees embody the values of respect and acceptance of others.
The same general principles that underlie development also apply to promotion, even if the partners involved may be different. Clearly, promotion often requires institutions to work together with members of the minority community, as well as groups from the majority community such as Canadian Parents for French and many others.
To be an effective, credible champion, each institution will have to embody linguistic duality, in terms of both service to the public and language of work. My report cards show that this ideal is still out of reach for a large segment of the public service, even if significant progress has been made over the last 35 years.
As managers, you have considerable influence on your institutions’ progress in this regard. Promoting linguistic duality implies openness toward others and a workplace where all employees can work in their official language of choice.
3. Positive Measures: The Need for Action
The last issue has been the main focus of your discussions to date: how far should we go to implement “positive measures”? In other words, how much effort should institutions be making?
There is no exact answer to this question. I can tell you one thing, however: you will not be able to achieve results in terms of community vitality without taking significant steps that have a positive impact on people’s lives. The riskiest approach for institutions is not to act. Once you’re engaged, the ball starts rolling.
How do you build trust between your organization and the communities? You need regular and personal contact to create a favourable context. And most of all, you need to put faith in the process.
I am glad I have enough time to have a proper discussion with you today. I can take two or three questions that you have had the most difficulty answering over the last few days so that we can explore possible solutions together.
(time for questions)
Thank you for your questions. As you have seen, the answers are not as exact as in other fields because we are not, after all, discussing road signs. But I see in your faces that many of you are beginning to see what needs to be done in concrete terms when you get back to the office.
But before I leave you, I have three pieces of homework for you too. As you see, I have some for everyone!
First, I encourage you to read my annual report, which was released last week. I would not go so far as to say that it is a guide for Part VII, but it will definitely help you to better direct your actions, I mean, your positive measures!
Once you have finished that, you can move on to the study published by my office on community vitality, which will be released tomorrow in Montreal, during the annual meeting of the Association francophone pour le savoir.
Finally, and this is specifically for the senior executives here today, it is up to you to get personally involved in implementing Part VII. Only those who are in a leadership position within their institutions have the broad perspective and authority required to implement the new obligations coherently and effectively. This is one of the lessons that we learned from the successful co-operative initiatives to date. Since this issue concerns all institutions, official languages should be a regular agenda item for your federal councils.
I wish you a good afternoon and a safe trip home.
1 Aline Visser, Speech at the Discussion Forum on the Vitality of Official Language Minority Communities, Ottawa, September 2005.
