A woman looks up at Governor General Mary Simon after they take a group photo after a community gathering on May 10, 2022 in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Que.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Senior government officials are exploring offering local language training to federal employees and possible exemptions for those who already speak one of the English and French proficiency requirements, newly released documents show.
Deputy ministers from several departments discussed the issue last fall.
A memo released to The Canadian Press under federal access to information laws noted a “growing tension” between official language requirements and indigenous languages.
Under Canada’s Official Languages Act, federal institutions must offer a work environment for employees to communicate in both French and English, and offer services to Canadians in both languages.
As such, communication in both languages is expected by senior executives and there are a number of public workplaces where bilingualism is mandatory. However, there is room for an employee to take classes and learn French or English as a second language.
The memo, issued last fall, said a task force had been assembled to make changes to official language requirements. It said some indigenous civil servants belonging to a network of about 400 people who work for the federal government had called for a “general release”.
“My personal view is that there are opportunities for exemptions — if the person speaks an Indigenous language,” Gina Wilson, the deputy minister who advocates for the needs of federal public servants’ Indigenous communities, wrote in an email to colleagues last November.
“Our GG [Governor-General] is a good example.”
The appointment of Inuk leader Mary Simon in 2021 has sparked discussion – and some controversy – about bilingualism in Canada’s highest offices, given how Ms. Simon, the first Indigenous person to be appointed governor general, spoke English and Inuktitut, but not French.
Ms. Simon, who was born in Kangiqsualujjuaq, in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, said she attended a federal day school and failed to learn French.
She committed to doing this after her appointment and took lessons, making some French remarks in public speeches.
Official Languages Commissioner Raymond Teberget said more than 1,000 complaints about Ms. Simon’s lack of French have been made to his office since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named her for the role.
Language training has been identified as one of the issues preventing Indigenous employees in the federal public service from advancing in their careers.
A report compiled by government officials around Canada’s 150th anniversary recommended that those who are indigenous be exempted from official language requirements and instead be given a chance to learn the language of their community.
It’s unclear whether Ottawa plans to move forward with changes to language requirements, training or exemptions.
A spokeswoman for Crown-Indigenous-Relations and Northern Affairs Canada said the ministry and Indigenous Services Canada “have no plans to offer Indigenous language training across the department,” noting that officials have offered workshops in the past.
It says indigenous employees are encouraged to talk to their managers about language training.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mark Miller, an English speaker who speaks French and is studying Mohawk, said in an interview that the idea of an exception is a sensitive issue.
“Inevitably, when you have to make one of these decisions, it’s more often than not, and almost always, at the expense of throwing out French,” said Mr. Miller, who represents a riding in Montreal.
“I don’t think it’s something that most people would find palatable … there are resources to learn it and I think there’s an availability for it.”
In talks last fall, senior officials suggested ways to address Indigenous government officials’ concerns about languages.
Ideas include allowing more time to learn a second language and even offering training in local languages, including to non-indigenous civil servants, as a show of reconciliation.
“I certainly remember during my French lessons having this nagging thought in the back of my mind that I would have been much more open to it if I had had the opportunity to be trained in my own Algonquin language,” wrote Ms. Wilson in his e-mail.
“I had a pretty good basis in both, but of course my French is much better than Algonquin now.”
Mr. Miller said he supports the idea of Ottawa providing courses, especially to local government officials who have not been given the chance to learn these languages on their own.
He said one of the challenges for that will be making sure Ottawa doesn’t take away language teachers from the communities.
“When you look at the fragility of indigenous languages across the country, you wouldn’t want to be in a circumstance where we’re taking really valuable assets … people in many circumstances who are quite a bit older and just walking dictionaries out of their communities, where communities are struggling to regained their tongues.’
The same concern was highlighted by government officials. Both they and Mr. Miller said Ottawa is facing calls to ensure it provides services to Inuktitut.
“We can do better with this,” he said.
One change that Laurie Idlout, Nunavut’s federal member of parliament, said needs to happen — and which officials also outlined in the memo — is for Ottawa to expand the $800 annual bonus it pays to employees who know two languages , to those who speak the local language.
The representative says she was approached by a union about federal employees in Nunavut who speak Inuktitut but cannot access the compensation because they are bilingual in French.
“In the meantime, they are providing valuable services to Inuit in Inuktitut,” she said. “It’s a huge problem.”
Ms. Idlout said Nunavut residents face many barriers when it comes to accessing federal services in general, including in Inuktitut.
According to the memo, officials are recommending the government explore a pilot project in Nunavut where jobs that require proficiency in Inuktitut “do not require proficiency in a second official language.”
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