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 .

[Linda Cardinal, Associate Vice-Rector of Research, Université de l’Ontario français, As an Individual]

Mr. Chair, members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages and colleagues, good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for this invitation to present my analysis of Bill C‑13. Since I believe you have received my brief, I will skip immediately to my conclusions.

There are significant deficiencies in the way official languages are managed across the country. One need only think of the problems government employees encounter working in French in the federal public service, the various processes for appointments to positions where French-language proficiency is of secondary importance and the Canadian government's failures in francophone immigration, particularly regarding international francophone students. I believe that Bill C‑13 could help meet these challenges and that the next phase will be to prepare regulations, directives and programs for its implementation. For these reasons, I encourage you to pass Bill C‑13 without delay.

In my presentation, I would also like to draw to your attention a few administrative recommendations, including proposals for essential measures to assist in implementing Bill C‑13. These recommendations are designed to institutionalize official languages leadership to a greater degree within the federal government.

Before discussing my recommendations, I would note that, for nearly five years now, all government and non-government actors have worked toward modernizing the Official Languages Act. The bill before you represents a reasonable compromise among all stakeholders. It includes necessary and realistic objectives for advancing official languages, including French, across the country. For example, it acknowledges the vulnerability of French, the necessity of francophone immigration targets and the use of French as a scientific language. It could help bring about the cultural change needed within the federal government by providing support for the French language and the francophonie.

However, we can't wait for a perfect statute before changing official languages culture across the country. As Machiavelli would have it, no law will ever deliver us completely from differences of opinion.

Furthermore, government employees, not members of Parliament, will do the work of implementing Bill C‑13. They must be given realistic objectives with which to do their work. As I said earlier, they will be responsible for developing regulations, tools and programs in order to alter practices on the ground. This is why I oppose the idea, proposed by certain stakeholders, of housing a central agency in the Treasury Board. In my opinion, that proposal runs counter to the rules of the federal government. The coordination mechanism proposed in the bill is more reasonable and realistic. The Treasury Board can't deliver programs, and it can't have authority over the policies and programs of other departments, but it can verify and monitor the administrative requirements of the other departments.

Such a major transfer of responsibility for official languages to the Treasury Board would delay implementation of Bill C‑13 and even block it in certain instances, given the natural disinclination within a large organization to welcome change. Instead, I hope that the departments, including Canadian Heritage, the Treasury Board Secretariat, Justice Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Statistics Canada, the Privy Council Office and Employment and Social Development Canada, in particular, its work program, will continue co‑operating to establish a coordination and accountability framework for the implementation of Bill C‑13. Based on the action plan, the Canadian government can also establish timelines, a calendar for implementing its objectives and measurable targets.

I recommend striking an official languages and francophonie committee within cabinet whose role would be to establish a mechanism for consulting the ministers who have responsibilities for official languages and the francophonie, to convey clear directives to those persons with respect to federal-provincial agreements and to review the process for appointing bilingual persons to executive positions.

Bill C‑13 includes realistic and reasonable targets and strikes a reasonable balance between the principles of formal and substantive equality, principles that the francophone minority communities have long demanded, particularly recognition of the vulnerability of French as an official language relative to English and the importance of giving the Official Languages Act a restorative character in addition to confirming the principle of substantive equality.

The reference to the principle of substantive equality in Bill C‑13 confirms that the advancement of equality between English and French in Canada includes the use of differentiated means, particularly in order to meet the needs of the minorities…

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 28 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Today's meeting is in a hybrid format. Members will attend in person or with the Zoom application.

In light of the recommendations from health authorities regarding the pandemic, all those attending the meeting in person should follow the directives of the Board of Internal Economy. I thank the members in advance for their co‑operation.

Should any technical challenges arise, please advise me. Note that we may need to suspend for a few minutes, as we need to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.

Pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, May 30, 2022, the committee is resuming its study of Bill C‑13, 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.

I would now like to welcome the first witnesses.

Today we have Linda Cardinal, Associate Vice-Rector of Research at the Université de l’Ontario français, and Stéphanie Chouinard, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University.

Welcome, ladies.

The meeting will be somewhat shortened as a result of the voting. You nevertheless have five minutes for your opening statements. Then we will begin the first round of questions.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are participating in the meeting by video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute your mike. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute to prevent echoing in the room.

As previously mentioned, you will be allowed a maximum of five minutes.

We will begin with Linda Cardinal.

Official Languages

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. As I have said many times, we have the same goal.

We want to do everything we can to protect and promote the beautiful French language all across Canada, including here. We recognize that French is in decline in North America, including in Canada. That is why we are moving forward with an ambitious bill. We want to do our part to protect our beautiful language, French, across the country.

I hope the opposition members will work with us to ensure that we can move forward with Bill C‑13 as quickly as possible.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Madam Speaker, very briefly, it is clear that the member opposite has not read Bill C‑13, because the opposite is true.

I really believe that the Bloc Québécois is misleading Canadians. We have moved forward with a new bill to ensure that all federally regulated private businesses are subject to this new law, that workers can work in French and that clients can be served in French, and also that they live in French in their community.

Once again, I would like to make sure that the members of the opposition will work with the government to pass this bill as quickly as possible.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Madam Speaker, I will take that as a no. It is probably because Bill C‑13 does not really protect French in Quebec. It protects institutional bilingualism, which results in the anglicization of workplaces and reduces the perception of the importance of being fluent in French in Quebec. Bill C‑13 does not recognize that French is the only official language that requires protection in light of the predominance of English in North America.

Is it possible that the Académie française did not invite the Minister of Official Languages because Bill C‑13 lacks vision?

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

Mr. Speaker, regurgitated talking points are not an answer.

The author of the study, economist Mario Polèse, said that equality between the two languages is no longer sufficient because the two languages are not equal in their ability to attract newcomers or in their importance, period. This means that French needs to be prioritized.

The problem with Bill C-13 is that the minister continues to put English and French on an equal footing in Quebec, when in fact, only French is under threat.

Putting both languages on an equal footing means stomping on my language with both feet.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Institute for Research on Public Policy is an independent, bilingual, pan-Canadian organization that nobody could suspect of harbouring separatist sympathies.

However, in a recently released study, the organization says that the new Official Languages Act will not slow the decline of French. To slow the decline of French, Bill C‑13 must be compatible with Quebec's Charter of the French Language.

Does the minister understand that the only way to protect French in Quebec is to make it so that only Quebec's language laws apply in Quebec?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, the serious mistake here is that the Bloc Québécois does not want to work with us on Bill C‑13. We designed this bill to do everything we can to protect and promote our beautiful language.

Once again, we have a shared objective with the Bloc and the Government of Quebec. We want to do whatever we can to protect our beautiful language.

I do not understand why the Bloc and the opposition members do not want to work with us to pass this bill as soon as possible.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Official Languages told La Presse that the provisions in Bill C‑13 regarding federally regulated businesses are exactly the same as those found in Quebec's Bill 96. It would be a serious mistake to believe that.

Bill 96 would require that all businesses in Quebec comply with the Charter of the French Language. Bill C‑13, however, allows businesses to choose whether to comply with the Charter of the French Language. The minister knows that there is a difference between being required to use French at work and being able to choose between English or French.

Why is she misleading Quebeckers?

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this government made the modernization of the Official Languages Act one of its top priorities.

We need to protect and promote French all across the country, yet the opposition parties are preventing our bill to modernize the act from going forward.

Could the Minister of Official Languages explain to Canadians what Bill C‑13 means for official language minority communities across Canada?

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Quebec Liberal lieutenant was right on Friday when he told journalists that “there is only one endangered [official] language in North America and that's French”.

That could not be any clearer and that is why we are calling out Bill C‑13 on official languages for not protecting French in Quebec, even though it is the only endangered official language.

Will the government finally understand that the threat to French in Quebec is English and that Bill C‑13 in Quebec protects English, not the endangered language, French? It makes no sense.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that really is not a clear answer.

The Prime Minister had a moment of clarity in 2016. He said, “Quebec has to be French in order for Canada to be bilingual”. This is in line with the amendments to Bill C‑13 that Quebec wants.

Quebec is asking the federal government to commit to respecting Quebec's language planning model set out in the Charter of the French Language.

Will the government incorporate Quebec's demands into Bill C‑13 to affirm Quebec's distinctiveness and ensure respect for the Charter of the French Language?

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Quebec has taken the rare step of sending all parties a list of amendments that it is calling for respecting Bill C‑13 on official languages. All it is asking for is for them to be rational.

It is asking the parties to note that the French language is in the minority in Canada because of the predominance of English and that francophones and anglophones therefore have different needs. That seems obvious to me.

Will the government amend Bill C‑13 so it corresponds to reality?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Exactly. The provinces use a point system for immigration, among other things.

If the federal government were to adopt the amendments that you are proposing with respect to francophone immigration policy, in Bill C‑13, do you think it would meet its objectives? If not, can we allow those provinces interested in francophone immigrants more latitude? What's important, no matter who is responsible for immigration, is to have francophone immigrants come to Canada.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank my colleague from the opposition party for asking certain questions.

We' re going to propose amendments. Needless to say, we need to know when we are going to do the clause‑by‑clause study of the bill. The options suggested are 28 hours, 22 hours, and 15 hours. So my question to him is, how much time do we have to study Bill C‑13? He should know when the government is going to table amendments.

I'm sure that we will be able to support some of the amendments proposed by the FCFA and that we'll be able to debate others. That means we need to know when we're going to debate these amendments. At the moment, we know don't know when we're going to do it.

I'll get back now to the heart of the matter.

I'd like to raise the issue of immigration. One of your amendments is to replace, in the preamble, "that immigration is one of the factors that contributes to maintaining or increasing" with "to ensuring the restoration and growth of" the demographic weight of those communities.

It seems to me, Ms. Roy and Mr. Dupuis, that you spoke about the importance of the Action Plan on Official Languages. But an act without funding is an act that fails. In your view, how important is it to have funding to support Bill C‑13?

We've seen it in the past, and I've heard it from your predecessor. The Action Plan on Official Languages was frozen for several years. That was harmful. The question of immigration is a difficult one. I've heard teachers in New Brunswick say that their little kiosks are set up right beside the big Quebec kiosk. It's very hard for them to attract francophone immigrants. The act needs to change, but what can be done to attract more francophone immigrants?

For me, it's like talking about my child's survival. It's important to me.