Bill C-13

An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages

An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts

Part 1 amends the Official Languages Act to, among other things,
(a) specify that all legal obligations related to the official languages apply at all times, including during emergencies;
(b) codify certain interpretative principles regarding language rights;
(c) provide that section 16 of that Act applies to the Supreme Court of Canada;
(d) provide that a final decision, order or judgment of a federal court that has precedential value is to be made available simultaneously in both official languages;
(e) provide for Government of Canada commitments to
(i) protect and promote French,
(ii) estimate the number of children whose parents are rights holders under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ,
(iii) advance formal, non-formal and informal opportunities for members of English and French linguistic minority communities to pursue quality learning in their own language throughout their lives, including from early childhood to post-secondary education, and
(iv) advance the use of English and French in the conduct of Canada’s external affairs;
(f) clarify the nature of the duty of federal institutions to take positive measures to implement certain Government of Canada commitments and the manner in which the duty is to be carried out;
(g) provide for certain positive measures that federal institutions may take to implement certain Government of Canada commitments, including measures to
(i) promote and support the learning of English and French in Canada, and
(ii) support sectors that are essential to enhancing the vitality of English and French linguistic minority communities and protect and promote the presence of strong institutions serving those communities;
(h) provide for certain measures that the Minister of Canadian Heritage may take to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society;
(i) provide that the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration is required to adopt a policy on francophone immigration and that the policy is to include, among other things, objectives, targets and indicators;
(j) provide that the Government of Canada recognizes the importance of cooperating with provincial and territorial governments;
(k) provide that the Treasury Board is required to establish policies to give effect to certain parts of that Act, monitor and audit federal institutions for their compliance with policies, directives and regulations relating to the official languages, evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of policies and programs of federal institutions relating to the official languages and provide certain information to the public and to employees of federal institutions;
(l) enable the Commissioner of Official Languages to enter into compliance agreements and, in certain cases, to make orders; and
(m) enable the Commissioner of Official Languages to impose administrative monetary penalties on certain entities for non-compliance with certain provisions of Part IV of that Act.
It also makes a related amendment to the Department of Canadian Heritage Act .
Part 2 enacts the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act , which, among other things, provides for rights and duties respecting the use of French as a language of service and a language of work in relation to federally regulated private businesses in Quebec and then, at a later date, in regions with a strong francophone presence. That Act also allows employees of federally regulated private businesses to make a complaint to the Commissioner of Official Languages with respect to rights and duties in relation to language of work and allows the Commissioner to refer the complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board in certain circumstances. It also provides that the Minister of Canadian Heritage is responsible for promoting those rights. Finally, Part 2 makes related amendments to the Canada Labour Code .

[Mona Fortier]

It is a tool that we take into consideration. As well, we referred to it in the well-known White Paper entitled "English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada." The government affirms its intention to strengthen the analysis of the impact of initiatives developed by departments regarding official languages and official language minority communities.

That initiative will be administrative, not legislative, which means that it is not currently reflected in Bill C-13. However, it will be applied administratively when the bill is passed, which I hope will be done soon.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

I am going to continue in the same vein, the delegation of powers.

Some people have criticized the delegation of powers to deputy heads at Treasury Board. Bill C-13 limits the power of general delegation to a specific delegation to institutions.

How has this delegation of powers been used in the past?

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

In good faith, Minister, I'd ask you to review those sections of the law. What you just said almost contradicts the powers of the Official Languages Act. With regard to the amendments under clause 54 of Bill C-13 moving forward for federally regulated workplaces, what you just said almost contradicts it. It says very clearly that it's up to the federally regulated private business to determine whether work is done in French or English.

For the record, I have no problem with the steps the Quebec government has taken. I'm addressing this only in the context of our Prime Minister, who has said it's problematic how the Province of Quebec has used the notwithstanding clause. Secondly, the justice minister, who comes from Quebec, has also stood in strong opposition to this law.

[Mona Fortier]

Well, with Bill C-13, we will be enforcing the fact that federally regulated sectors will have the ability to offer those services in both official languages.

I know you'll be able to dive in more on this issue with Minister Petitpas Taylor on Thursday. I would let her bring forward the analysis that has been done for that provision.

[Mona Fortier]

As I said earlier, we will be bringing federally regulated sectors in to follow Bill C-13 to make sure Canadians can be served in the official language of their choice. I believe you—

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Since I only have a minute left, I don't think I have time to get an answer to another question.

However, I would again like to point out the requests made by the francophone and Acadian communities. They say it is necessary for Treasury Board to take a much larger role as a central agency. We also have to be sure that Bill C-13 provides tools such as language clauses to genuinely support the communities where we see a very concerning decline in French.

We hope to be able to work to make sure that Bill C-13is improved in this regard.

[Mona Fortier]

If I understand correctly, your question has two parts.

On the first part, concerning the accountability framework, a new framework will apply under Bill C-13, which I hope will be passed, so the answer is yes.

Could you repeat the second part of your question so I can be sure I am answering it properly?

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Fair enough.

For many years, a number of federal institutions have ignored their official languages obligations without suffering any consequences.

In addition to Bill C-13, do you intend to review the evaluation framework for senior managers in the public service so that all senior officials have to report to you on the efforts they have made to propose the positive measures that are needed in order to support the vitality of official language minority communities?

[Mona Fortier]

Thank you for reminding me that I was a member of the FCFA and the FJCF, Ms. Ashton. We can see that we were talking about the same things 20 years and even 30 years ago.

On the question of the provisions in federal-provincial-territorial agreements, Bill C-13 will obviously strengthen the obligations provided in Part VII of the act regarding positive measures, as you mentioned, to ensure the development of official language minority communities.

Treasury Board will therefore have a role in monitoring how institutions abide by their obligations in connection with that position when it comes to positive measures, but also in connection with our provincial and territorial counterparts. On the question of monitoring, evaluating and ensuring compliance, we are going to evaluate adherence to language provisions in federal-provincial-territorial agreements.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you.

Minister, I would like to start with a short comment.

Your answer to my colleague Mr. Godin was that you wanted to have a power to implement whole-of-government strategies on Parts IV, V, VI and VII of the act. At present, we are including only one part of Part VII.

I would like to point out that I believe you are right. I believe we have to correct Bill C-13 to include all of Part VII.

With that said, I would now like to ask you a question.

You are very familiar with Canadian francophonie. A few years ago, you were the vice-president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, the FCFA, and before that you were the president of the Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française, or FJCF.

So you must be aware of the importance of language provisions to francophone and Acadian communities. You know that are often unable to access the services they are entitled to from provinces and territories, even when those services are funded with federal money.

Do you support their request for enforceable language provisions in federal-provincial-territorial agreements?

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Fair enough, but you are essentially reiterating the principle of institutional bilingualism, which is contrary to the Charter of the French Language.

Under the Charter of the French Language, Quebec is the only francophone state in North America. The only way to succeed is to integrate newcomers, and we know that 90 per cent of language transfers in Quebec have to be toward French in order to maintain our demographic weight.

By using the criterion of first official language spoken, for example, the federal government is already taking the position that 33 per cent of immigrants should receive services in English, and that is in direct conflict with our objective. The effect is to make francophones a minority.

We are going to propose these amendments to Bill C‑13.

If it is passed, do you think it would be possible for you to make efforts to achieve this?

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

What is difficult is that in Quebec, the language of work is French. An effort is being made to make French the common language. This is vital to ensure the future of French in Quebec, and federal institutions really are a hindrance to that effort.

Mr. Barrière, the vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada in Quebec, has even said that there is systemic discrimination in the federal public service in Quebec that assumes that communications will be in English first, when French should be the language of work. What can you do about this?

There is a request by the Quebec government to amend Bill C‑13. The amendment calls for recognition that French is the predominant language—I would have said "common language"—in the federal public service in Quebec.

Do you think that is something that could be considered?

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

Will Treasury Board be hiring new employees in order to perform the mandate assigned to it by Bill C-13?

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

What is there in Bill C-13 that gives you the power to take on obligations of result in each government department?

[Mona Fortier]

Under the approach we want to adopt, the role of Treasury Board would be as a central body that monitors, evaluates and ensures compliance with Parts IV, V, VI and VII of the Official Languages Act.

We will leave it up to the Department of Canadian Heritage offices to continue to apply their expertise from an external perspective, given their knowledge of the field. This will enable Treasury Board to actually verify compliance on the part of institutions within government.

That is the role being proposed for Treasury Board in Bill C-13, so it can assume more responsibilities than before and will be able to devote its efforts to monitoring and evaluating and to ensuring compliance with the various measures and programs that will be implemented.