High-ranking officials are considering offering native language courses to federal employees. They are also considering offering an exemption for those who already speak one while having sufficient knowledge of English or French, documents reveal.
Deputy ministers from several departments discussed these topics over the past fall.
A memo obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act warned of “growing tensions” among employees speaking an Indigenous language but not fluent in the country’s two official languages.
According to the Official Languages Act, federal institutions must ensure that the workplace is conducive to the effective use of both official languages, while allowing their staff to use one or the other.
As such, senior officials must be able to communicate in English and French. Bilingualism is mandatory for a number of public service positions. However, an employee may take English or French courses.
A memo circulated last fall mentioning that a working group had been formed to discuss possible changes to bilingualism requirements in the federal public service. We learn that a network of approximately 400 Aboriginal public servants raised the need for “a general exemption”.
“In my opinion, an exemption should be granted if the employee speaks an Aboriginal language,” wrote Gina Wilson, a deputy minister at Canadian Heritage who defends the need to hire more Aboriginal public servants. Our Governor General is a good example. »
The appointment of Mary Simon, an Inuk, as Governor General has been controversial because she speaks English and Inuktitut, but not French. She is learning the language of Molière.
It is unclear whether the government intends to move forward with these proposals.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, who is learning the Mohawk language, says the idea of giving exemptions is a sensitive topic.
“When you make this kind of decision, it’s almost always to the detriment of the French. Inevitably, he points out. This is not something that a majority of people will find acceptable. There are already resources to learn [une langue officielle] and they are available. »
Other ideas that have been floated include the possibility of giving more time to learn the second official language and giving all public servants, including non-Aboriginals, the opportunity to learn an Aboriginal language.
Marc Miller says he supports the idea of giving language courses, particularly to Aboriginal public servants who did not have the chance to learn an Aboriginal language in their youth.
He does not want teachers to be removed from indigenous communities, where they contribute to the revival of lost languages.
“If we observe the fragility of Aboriginal languages across the country, we do not want to remove these precious assets. We don’t want to take these teachers, often older people, traveling dictionaries, and remove them from the communities that are trying to revive their language. »
Officials also raised the need to provide services in Inuktitut to Inuit.
“We can do better in this area,” Miller concedes.