Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, since the meeting is televised, I thought the committee would be offering make-up service, not for you or me, Mr. Chair, since we're both young and good-looking, but my colleague, who has been under enormous stress for the past two weeks, could have used some foundation and a little rouge, but never mind.
Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, members of the committee, good morning.
We are very pleased to appear before you today to outline our position on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
The Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. His role is to investigate, report and make recommendations with regard to compliance with the New Brunswick Official Languages Act. The commissioner also has a mandate to promote the advancement of both official languages in the province. It is under this promotion mandate that we wish to propose changes to the federal Official Languages Act.
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick has prepared a brief on this matter. A few weeks ago, we officially submitted that brief to the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages.
Part 1 of this brief describes New Brunswick's legal uniqueness in terms of language rights, and the shortcomings of the federal system created by the Official Languages Act in 1988 with regard to our province.
Part 2 calls on Parliament to address these gaps by recognizing New Brunswick's uniqueness in a modernized federal official languages act, and wherever possible, aligning the federal and New Brunswick language regimes.
Part 3 encourages Parliament to draw from the wealth of New Brunswick's 50 years of experience with official languages, particularly the most recent version of the New Brunswick Official Languages Act.
Allow me to summarize the first two parts of our brief. Our office recommends that the federal Official Languages Act be amended to align the obligations of the federal and New Brunswick governments to offer services to and communicate with the public in both official languages.
As you know, at the federal level, members of the public have the right to use English or French to communicate with or receive services from the offices of institutions of Parliament or the government of Canada where there is a significant demand or due to the nature of the office. This means that the federal act allows several offices of federal institutions in New Brunswick to be unilingual. Currently, at least two federal offices in New Brunswick offer services only in French and at least 51 federal offices offer services only in English. Examples of this are cited in our brief.
At the provincial level, however, the people of New Brunswick have the unconditional right to use English or French to communicate with or receive services from any office of an institution of the legislature or government of New Brunswick. In other words, the condition of significant demand does not apply to the provincial institutions of New Brunswick.
In New Brunswick, there is therefore a striking divergence between the complete institutional bilingualism and provincial communications and services and the partial and localized bilingualism in federal institutions. Parliament should therefore adjust the wording in section 22 of the federal Official Languages Act to reflect, in New Brunswick, the constitutional framework in which it operates, and to ensure that the federal system is consistent with New Brunswick's complete institutional bilingualism.
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick calls on Parliament to modernize the federal Official Languages Act in order to expressly require that the federal government offer its services and communicate in both official languages throughout New Brunswick. To achieve this, all that is required is to provide that the obligations set out in section 22 apply to all offices of federal institutions in New Brunswick.
Section 16.1 of the Charter entrenches the equal rights and privileges of the English and French communities in New Brunswick, including their right to distinct educational institutions and such distinct cultural institutions as are necessary for the preservation and promotion of those communities.
This constitutional recognition, unique in Canada, is not reflected anywhere in the current federal act. Yet, the equal rights and privileges of New Brunswick’s official language communities must influence federal public policies.
Parliament should modernize the federal act in light of the addition of section 16.1 of the charter in 1993, to provide for and regulate the federal government's obligation to consider the equal rights and privileges of New Brunswick's English and French communities. Such modernization could be achieved by providing, in part VII of the federal act, an additional commitment—along with an obligation to take positive measures to implement it by the federal government—to recognize and promote the equality of status and equal rights of New Brunswick's English and French linguistic communities, including the right of these communities to distinct educational and cultural institutions necessary for their protection and promotion.
For example, the constitutional equality of both official linguistic communities in New Brunswick should guide the development and implementation of the federal government's immigration policies. The federal Official Languages Act should require the federal government to take into account New Brunswick's specific linguistic balance and the recognition of the equality of status and equal rights and privileges of the province's two linguistic communities in its immigration policies, so as to maintain the existing linguistic balance.
The addition of section 16.1 to Canada's Official Languages Act must help to support the act's practical application by means of statutory provisions specific to our province. In other words, the addition of section 16.1 to Canada's Official Languages Act must help to apply the principle of equality between our two linguistic communities. A modernization of Canada's Official Languages Act has the power to provide considerable support to the vitality of New Brunswick's official language communities.
Thank you for your attention.