−An Analysis of a Study of Federal Offices Designated to Respond
to the Public in Both Official Languages −
Norie YAZU
30 years have passed since Canada
established Official Bilingualism (OB) with
the passage of the Official Languages Act (OLA) of 1969. Although the language planners of the Royal
Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism originally intended to transplant
the Finnish Model, Canada eventually came to develop its own unique
model--------a direction that reflected the socio-political movement including
the controversial Quebec Issue, the intentions of the language planners, and
the complex linguistic situation of Canada characterized by the imbalance in
the number of speakers and the geographic polarization of the two major
language groups, the anglophones and the francophones.
The Canadian experience implies that language planning,
affected by various factors, is largely subject to transformation. The 1969 OLA
identified three major components of policy--------(1)service to the public in both official languages, (2)balanced participation of anglophones and francophones in
the public service, and (3)freedom of choice in the language of
work--------and set out the idea of establishing bilingual districts in areas
where more than 10% of the population consisted of the official language minority.
However, it allowed discretion of language planners and politicians in
elaborating the actual method of policy implementation. After a continuous
process of trial and failure, among which was the abandonment of the idea of
bilingual districts, the revised version of the OLA passed in 1988
has become the
basis for the present-day OB policy.
In this paper, after giving a brief
description of the complex language situation of Canadians living in a
multicultural society, I will examine the "Study of Federal Offices
Designated to Respond to the Public in Both English and French" conducted
recently by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL). In compliance with the 1988 OLA, which stipulated that
federal institutions must communicate with and provide services to the public
in both English and French wherever there is a "significant demand"
for services in both languages or where the "nature of the office"
would make it reasonable to do so, 4,300 federal service points were designated
to provide services in both official languages out of a total of approximately
13,700 points all across Canada, as of January 1994, when the survey started.
Having audited 1,200 points designated "bilingual", the OCOL's
finding was that the availability of services in French outside Quebec fell
short of meeting the citizens concerned. I will go on further to examine
whether progresses were made in light of the recommendations made in 1994 by
referring to the results of the follow-up studies conducted in each province
from 1997 to 2000. I will also touch on the attitude of the
Canadians-------anglophones, francophones and allophones--------toward OB.