Official Languages committee  I would add that British Columbia is the only province that doesn't have a French-language services policy. It's true. Having worked in the federal government, I know that bilingual employees receive the bonus. I don't know whether it's still in effect, but I think a minor finan

Official Languages committee  As regards French-language services, I think that all francophone newcomers want to be served in the language they're accustomed to using. Providing French-language services is one way for us to retain those francophones in British Columbia. It's very hard to retain them right no

Official Languages committee  Once again, we come back to the idea of modernizing the act. I think it's now necessary for public servants to be bilingual. We won't be able to provide those services if we don't have bilingual public servants. It's true, as I said in my report, that the number of domestic viol

Official Languages committee  When immigrants requested services in French, the Service Canada office said that it was under no obligation to offer services in French. It was unfortunate that newcomers, francophone immigrants, could not be served in French. The response that was given was that they weren't o

Official Languages committee  Categorically, no.

Official Languages committee  I think modernizing the Official Languages Act is very important. It would help us a lot. At the moment, there are no linguistic obligations in British Columbia. The act is not mandatory. I think modernizing it would help us. I think it would mean that all services in French wou

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chair, members of the official languages committee, good afternoon. Former committee members who came to meet with us in Vancouver already know me, so hello again to those members. To introduce myself to the new members of the committee, my name is Padminee Chundunsing, and