Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick tables fourth Annual Report

Highlights of the study on the use of French in communications between Francophone organizations and municipalities and senior management of government departments and agencies

Use of French

• The vast majority of survey respondents, i.e., 17 out of 21, said they wished French was used more at meetings with senior public servants. That wish is not surprising given that only four respondents said French was always used at meetings with senior management.
   
• There is some bilingual capacity within the senior public service. Half of the respondents said that French was used most of the time, whereas a quarter indicated that French was often or sometimes used during meetings with senior public servants.

Use of both official languages

• Eleven respondents out of 21 reported meetings with senior public servants at which English and French were used often or sometimes. However, only four respondents have attended bilingual meetings where simultaneous interpretation was available.

• In the absence of simultaneous interpretation, various practices were used. In some cases, the respondents would express themselves in French, and the senior public servants would reply in English. In other cases, a bilingual public servant would translate what the participants said into the other language (generally English). Some respondents said they would repeat in English what they had first said in French. Others spoke partly in English when the conversation pertained to technical matters.
   
• The use of both languages at a meeting where simultaneous interpretation was not available was often a prelude to a meeting that would ultimately take place in English only. It was not unusual for the respondents to switch to English because the use of both languages slows down communications since anything said in French has to be translated into English.

Use of English

• Nearly half the respondents said that English was often or sometimes the only language used at meetings with senior public servants.

Communication that is not clear

• A number of respondents expressed concerns about the clarity of their exchanges with senior public servants. These concerns arise from two findings: first, some senior public servants who say they are bilingual are clearly not sufficiently proficient in French; second, a number of respondents were aware that the use of English limits their ability to express themselves with all the subtlety required by the complexity of the issues they are dealing with.

Obstacles to the use of French

• The unilingualism of a senior public servant or a minister is definitely the main obstacle to the use of French at meetings with senior management. However, it is not the only one. Half of the respondents said that the level of French-language proficiency among bilingual senior public servants was not sufficient for in-depth discussions in French, which would result in their using English. Furthermore, a quarter of the respondents said that the use of French could result in the exclusion from meetings of senior public servants responsible for a particular issue, thus affecting discussion quality. In some cases, despite the presence of bilingual senior public servants, the presence of other unilingual Anglophone stakeholders (e.g., experts in a particular field) would prompt the group, often a working group, to use English.

Bilingualism among senior public servants

• The respondents established a direct link between unilingualism among senior public servants and the inability to use French at meetings. Language training and a bilingualism requirement for senior management positions were the main means suggested for increasing the use of French.
   
• Most respondents did not expect ministers to be bilingual. However, according to them, a minister’s unilingualism should not prevent the representatives of organizations from expressing themselves in French.

Highlights of the findings of the compliance audit of cities, municipalities and regional service commissions (RSCs) with the Official Languages Act

Audit of the delivery of services in person, by telephone and by email
(In total, 15 audits were done with each city and municipality in each language; 5 audits were done with each commission in each language.) 

• The auditors usually obtained service in the official language of their choice. However, the service in English was often superior to the service in French in terms of the time it took to obtain service, the quality of written communications (emails), the frequency of failures to receive service, and the level of service delivery. 
   
• The number of failures to receive service in the auditors’ choice of official language was low. In total, there were five failures during the 240 audits conducted in French with cities and municipalities. Two failures occurred during an audit in person at the city halls of Fredericton (1) and Miramichi (1), two failures occurred during a telephone call to the Saint John city hall (1) and the Rexton town hall (1), and one failure occurred during an audit conducted by email with the city of Moncton (1). 
   
• There was only one failure to receive service in English, which occurred during an audit in person at the Atholville town hall.
   
• No failures occurred during the audits of the regional service commissions (RSCs).
   
• The active offer of service, i.e., greeting extended to the public in both official languages, is not a widespread practice. In fact, during the audits in person, the auditors were greeted in both official languages less than once out of every two times.

Audit of websites and social media

• All of the cities, municipalities and RSCs respect the obligation to post information in both official languages on their websites.  However, major problems with respect to similarity of content between English and French web pages were noted for three cities (Edmundston, Miramichi and Saint John), one municipality (Eel River Crossing), and two RSCs (Greater Miramichi and Fundy).
   
• With respect to posts on social media (Facebook and Twitter), the rate of posts in both official languages was relatively high. However, a number of cities, municipalities and RSCs had not published all of the posts audited in English and French.

Audit of official documents adopted or published between November 21, 2015 and November 21, 2016

• All of the cities, except Miramichi, and all of the municipalities, except Charlo, have perfect (100%) or very high (95%) scores for the translation of official documents adopted or published during the audit period.
   
• All of the RSCs, except the Fundy, Northwest and Greater Miramichi RSCs, had perfect (100%) or very high (98%) scores for the translation of official documents adopted or published during the audit period.

Cities, Municipalities and RSCs with Language Obligations under the Official Languages Act

Cities

Municipalities

(Municipalities with an official language minority population of at least 20% of the total population)

        Regional Service Commissions (RSCs)

(RSCs with language obligations are those serving an area whose official language minority population is at least 20% of the total population or that include a city or municipality subject to the OLA)

• Bathurst
• Campbellton
• Dieppe
• Edmundston
• Fredericton
• Miramichi
• Moncton
• Saint John

• Atholville
• Charlo
• Dalhousie
• Eel River Crossing
• Rexton
• Richibucto
• Shediac
• Tide Head

• Northwest RSC
• Restigouche RSC
• Chaleur RSC
• Greater Miramichi RSC
• Kent RSC
• Southeast RSC  
• Fundy RSC
• RSC 11