OTTAWA-
The Treasury Board rejects the idea put forward by some Aboriginal public servants to offer “blanket exemptions” so that they do not have to learn Canada’s two official languages.
A briefing note from last fall published in The Canadian Press as part of federal access to information shows senior officials responding to the call for exemption from some members of the Aboriginal Federal Employees Network.
Senior officials reported a “growing tension” between Indigenous languages and the official languages of French and English for some Indigenous employees. The memo says the employees “strongly asserted a blanket exemption.”
The office of Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said in a statement this week that it was working with partners to explore options for overcoming the obstacles public servants face in advancing their careers.
“A blanket exemption from official languages is not one,” it read.
“We will never change the fundamental principle of bilingualism in the public service.”
Under Canadian law, federal institutions must provide services in both languages and offer a bilingual work environment. However, some positions may be classified to allow employees to learn a second language by taking courses.
The requirement to work in both French and English has been identified in the past as one of the main obstacles faced by Indigenous public servants in advancing in their careers, including in certain government leadership positions.
The briefing note lists some of the possible solutions officials have discussed to address these barriers, including providing Indigenous language training for Indigenous and non-Indigenous public servants, as well as potential exemptions if someone could speak an Indigenous language.
They suggested designing a pilot project in Nunavut where jobs requiring an Inuit language would not require an employee to be proficient in a second official language.
Gina Wilson, deputy minister and advocate for Indigenous public servants, wrote to her colleagues last November to say she believed there was room for the exemption, “if the person speaks an Indigenous language.”
Wilson is now Deputy Minister of Indigenous Services Canada. She was Deputy Minister of Women and Gender Equality when she wrote the email.
In her email, she cited the case of Governor General Mary Simon who is bilingual in Inuktitut and English.
“Then we have the question of who assesses the ability of the native language speaker, but as a pilot we could surely figure it out,” she wrote.
Officials offered other ideas, such as giving Indigenous employees more time to meet their second-language requirements and compensating those who use their Indigenous language skills on the job, similar to the annual bonus that receive bilingual employees.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 18, 2022.