(Ottawa) Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux expects the costs associated with implementing Bill C-13, once passed, to be “fairly low for businesses in Quebec.
Posted yesterday at 8:26 p.m.
He issued this clarification Monday to the Senate Committee on Official Languages, shortly after concluding in a report that it would cost 240 million to the companies concerned across Canada.
Bill C-13, in addition to proposing the way forward to modernize the Official Languages Act, provides for the creation of an Act respecting the use of French within private enterprises under federal jurisdiction.
This is intended to guarantee, in “regions with a strong French presence”, the right of employees to work and be supervised in French and the PBO has calculated how much training and salary bonuses are likely to be spent bilingualism, for example.
“The costs for implementation in Quebec are probably quite low because the presence, the ability to provide services in French in Quebec [ainsi que celle] to supervise French-speaking employees – or in both official languages – is quite high in Quebec,” Mr. Giroux told senators who asked him for details on his recent report.
He also argued that Bill 96, recently adopted by the National Assembly before the summer break, should not change much.
“We see that the financial implications of Bill C-96 would probably not be the most significant in the context of C-13,” he argued, specifying that he was talking about the cost for businesses.
He added that the costs associated with the modernization of Official Languages Act will be mainly “administrative” in Quebec and that this bill will have to be borne by the federal government.
Among employees and managers, there probably wouldn’t be that many costs, other than the administrative costs of responding to complaints and educating employers.
Yves Giroux, Parliamentary Budget Officer
In its report, which was commissioned by the Senate Committee on Official Languages, the PBO estimated that Ottawa will have to spend $2.9 million a year for the implementation of C-13.
Mr. Giroux also pointed out Monday that the exact Canadian regions where the provisions of the legislative piece will apply remain to be defined. He explained that his calculation is therefore based on the places that risk being subject to it, after consultation with the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge.
“It was assumed that the regions that would subsequently be included and covered by the bill would be the regions of eastern Ontario – obviously covering the Capitale-Nationale – as well as certain regions of northern Ontario. “, gave as an example the PBO.
Bill C-13 has reached the committee stage of the House of Commons. It remains to be seen how far he will go by the end of the parliamentary session on June 23.