Treasury Board Secretariat Action Plan on the Implementation of Section 41 of the Official Languages Act

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Minister responsible: The Honourable Lucienne Robillard

As an institution designated by the Accountability Framework for Implementation of Section 41, approved by the government in August 1994, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) has proposed a number of measures to fulfil its commitment to enhancing the vitality of the official language minority communities and promoting linguistic duality.

The Memorandum of Understanding made in 1997 between the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH) enabled TBS to strengthen the organizational measures for achieving the objectives sought in section 41 of the Official Languages Act (the Act) in the federal government.

This paper presents the results obtained in the 2001-2002 fiscal year for the measures provided for in the 2001-2002 Action Plan and reports on the efforts by TBS to fully play the role assigned to it in the above Memorandum of Understanding.

1. Key Results Obtained in 2001-2002

• TBS continued its discussions with PCH aimed at renewing the Memorandum of Understanding on implementation of section 41 of the Act.
• TBS continued its analysis of submissions to the Treasury Board (TB) to optimize their impact on the official languages. In this connection it incorporated into the revised version of the Guide to Preparing Treasury Board Submissions a section on official languages reflecting the TB decision in this respect.
• TBS continued and increased its activities to support the champions in their mission of making the Official Languages Program more visible and acting as high-level contacts for the official language minority communities. Many work sessions were held to discuss ways of incorporating the official languages both into their organization's functional and statutory activities and into the management of government.
• TBS continued in general to ensure that policies proposed for the institutions for which it is the employer take into account the government's objectives for development of the official language minority communities and the promotion of linguistic duality. These principles are reflected, for example, in the new Communications Policy of the Government of Canada.
• TBS consulted the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and the Quebec Community Groups Network on large-scale government projects like the Modernizing Human Resources Management initiative and the Policy on Alternative Service Delivery.
• TBS continued to work with PCH to encourage the Ontario Federal Council to set up an official languages sub-committee and develop a preliminary action plan to maximize achievement of the government's objectives for linguistic duality and the vitality of the official language minority communities. During the review year the Newfoundland and Labrador official languages sub-committee was strengthened.
• TBS held meetings of its advisory networks in the regions so that the official language minority community representatives could voice their needs and aspirations to the representatives of federal institutions. Examples are the meeting of Crown corporation champions in Toronto, Ontario; meetings of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Official Languages in St. John's Newfoundland; and the meeting of the Crown Corporations Advisory Committee in North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
• TBS participated actively in the Atlantic Symposium on Official Languages, an initiative sponsored by the four federal regional councils of the Atlantic provinces, which brought together representatives of 29 federal institutions to discuss best practices and solutions for achieving the government's official languages objectives.
• TBS launched an initiative aimed at enhancing the quality of the services provided to French-speaking Canadians in British Columbia. This initiative led to concerted action by the Fédération des Francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, the Pacific Council of Senior Federal Officials, TBS and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
• TBS continued to support the work of the National Committee for Canadian Francophonie Human Resources Development and its Regroupements pour le développement économique et de l'employabilité co-ordinated by Human Resources Development Canada. TBS also actively supported the National Human Resources Development Committee for the English Linguistic Minority.

2. Dissemination of the Results from the Action Plan

The action plan results are disseminated to national, provincial and territorial associations representing official language minority communities, to the Commissioner of Official Languages and to the Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages.

National Co-ordinator:

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