Translation Bureau
Mandate

Learn about the Translation Bureau’s mission and role and main activities.

Mandate

The Translation Bureau is part of the Public Services and Procurement Canada’s mandate (PSPC).  It supports federal departments and agencies in the achievement of their mandated objectives as their linguistic authority.

Mission

The Bureau shall collaborate with and act for all departments, boards, agencies and commissions established by Act of Parliament or appointed by order of the Governor in Council and collaborate with and act for both Houses of Parliament in all matters relating to the making and revising of translations from one language into another of documents, including correspondence, reports, proceedings, debates, bills and Acts, and to conference and sign language interpretation, and terminology.

Role

Established in 1934, the Translation Bureau is a special operating agency of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). It supports the Government of Canada in its efforts to communicate with and serve Canadians in its official languages, Indigenous languages, foreign languages as well as sign languages.

It offers translation, revision, editing, terminology, language advice, closed captioning, and interpretation services to federal departments and agencies and Parliament. The Translation Bureau also provides online tools and resources to Canadians through the Language Portal of Canada.

The Translation Bureau is the center of excellence in linguistic services for the Government of Canada. It also plays a leadership role in the various spheres of federal government activities and increasingly stands out in the Canadian languages industry as a leader in language technologies due to its innovative culture.

Translation Bureau services

The Translation Bureau offers language services and tools to federal departments and agencies and to Parliament. These services are offered in:

• the official languages
• Indigenous languages
• foreign languages
• sign languages

The resources of the Language Portal of Canada include tools such as:

• Language Navigator
• TERMIUM Plus
• Official Languages Hub
• writing tools
• the Our Languages blog
• various language quizzes
• many terminology glossaries and vocabularies

Related links

• Our services, standards and results 2022 to 2023
• Create your own language tools
• TERMIUM Plus Open data
• Interpretation in Indigenous languages, past to present
• A new high point for Canada's language industry leader
• Supporting the revitalization of Canada's Indigenous languages