A “portrait of the services in French offered to residents by the city of Cornwall” will be presented Tuesday evening, during a meeting of the municipal council of this city, on the edge of the American border.
Commissioned by Mayor Justin Towndale last September, the document indicates that 46.14% of people occupying the City’s 925 positions know how to speak French. The percentage rises to nearly 63% for some 397 front-line positions.
Municipal clerk Manon Levesque divided her analysis according to the different services. Thus, if all employees working in the “Infrastructure and Municipal Works” department speak French, only a little more than half of those working on the front line of paramedical and fire services can respond to residents in this language.
The city in southeastern Ontario adopted a policy on bilingualism in 2003, which commits it to offering its essential municipal services in French and English, but also to designating 19 bilingual positions. Only one of them is not staffed by a bilingual employee, according to the report. The clerk recommends that this be corrected by the end of the year.
The document concludes with suggestions for “next steps”, which include “revising the policy on bilingualism” to implement an active offer of services in French, and that the minutes of municipal council meetings be published in both languages. Ms. Levesque also recommends that elected officials “discuss” with “stakeholders in the French-speaking community” and offer French courses to employees.
It ultimately encourages “employees and residents to demonstrate empathy and understanding and to recognize that language proficiency does not reflect the sole standard of good customer service, but rather to appreciate the efforts of all to speak French.
Highlighting the City’s initiative, the president of the Assembly of the Francophonie of Ontario, Fabien Hébert, believes that “other municipalities should follow suit.” “There is a real economic advantage to being bilingual and the city of Cornwall seems to see this. »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.