Bloc Québécois amendment 39.1 pertains to the translation bureau.
I am proposing that Bill C-13, in clause 21, be amended by adding after line 13 on page 14 the following:
42.2 (1) The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that, within one year after this section comes into force, (a) the translation, interpretation, sign-language interpretation and terminology services that the Translation Bureau provides to federal institutions under the Translation Bureau Act are hereafter provided free of charge; (b) the duties and functions set out in subsections 4(1) and (2) of the Translation Bureau Act are carried out; and (c) the Translation Bureau is given the mandate to use the Government of Canada’s purchasing power to develop the Canadian language sector. (2) The Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and the Translation Bureau shall take such measures as they consider appropriate for the implementation of the commitments under subsection (1).
As we speak, the government is violating its own Translation Bureau Act, which says that the bureau's services are to be provided free of charge. Since its services stopped being provided free of charge and departments and other government institutions have been made to pay for those services, many of them have stopped having their documents translated. Some do so only on request. Others rely on machine translation or unqualified resources. Some pay even more for translation services than what the translation bureau charges.
On one hand, what I'm proposing would cost less, and on the other, it would ensure the provision of translation services to the Parliament of Canada in both official languages. If people really care about Parliament's capacity to conduct bilingual proceedings and the availability of those proceedings in French, the committee must support this amendment.