Amendment to the Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations

Effective date: November 30, 2016

The Official Languages Act and the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations (SOR/92-48) (the Regulations) provide that members of the public have the right to receive services from and communicate with the designated offices of a federal institution in the official language of their choice.

The Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations (the directive) deals with various operational aspects associated with the implementation of the Regulations, including the time frames and terms and conditions that apply in situations where offices are no longer required to provide services in both official languages.

A review of the Regulations is proposed in order to:

• modernize them
• develop an expanded but balanced calculation method that will better reflect current demographics and be better able to respond to changing demographics in the future
• improve bilingual services in the transportation industry and explore opportunities presented by new technologies
• fix other regulatory anomalies

In order to support the review and to facilitate the implementation of eventual regulatory changes, it is desirable that certain offices take administrative measures to maintain their capacity to communicate with and provide services to the public in both official languages and continue to provide bilingual services pending the review.

For these reasons, pursuant to the authority granted to the Treasury Board of Canada under paragraph 46(2)(a) of the Official Languages Act, and pursuant to the delegation of authority to amend the directive that was granted to the President of Treasury Board, the President amends the directive, with the amendment taking effect on November 30, 2016, by adding a new subsection 6.2.3, following subsection 6.2.2 of the directive:

• 6.2.3 Despite subsections 6.2.1 and 6.2.2 of this directive, and in order to facilitate a regulatory review, take administrative measures to ensure that offices that are no longer required to communicate with and provide services to the public in both official languages following the publication of the Population Estimates by First Official Language Spoken of the most recent decennial census continue to communicate with and provide services to the public in both official languages until the first of the following two dates: (1) the coming into force of new regulatory measures, if any, following a regulatory review, or (2) such time as deputy heads or their delegates review and update the language obligations of offices subject to the provisions of the Regulations, pursuant to subsection 6.2.1 of this directive and to section 3 of the Regulations, following the publication of the Population Estimates by First Official Language Spoken of the next decennial census in 2021.