Each year on March 20, we join with francophones around the world to celebrate the importance, beauty and diversity of the French language and cultures!
As an organization representing thousands of French-speaking public servants, we strongly support a worker’s right to work in their language of choice. And we continue to advocate for language training in the federal public service.
In our recent submission on the proposed changes to the Official Languages Act, we advocate for:
- the protection of both official languages, as well as indigenous languages
- the rights of all workers to work in their official language of choice
- the obligation to provide services in designated government offices in both official languages
- the reopening of the Bilingualism Bonus Directive to better support the use of both official languages amongst federal government employees
We are, however, concerned that:
- the federal government is failing to uphold bilingualism by not properly funding language training
- tools used for the daily activities are not always available in both official languages
- inequality in the evaluation of the second language abilities and language requirements on positions are leading to problems
- lack of a coordinated, well-funded language strategy for the federal public service is having a negative impact on our members’ career opportunities
We are committed to not only celebrating, but protecting and fighting for the French language in Canada! In its diversity and richness - On célèbre le français!
Our Task Force on Official Languages leads this important work and they welcome any questions or comments at gtlo_tfol@pipsc.ca.