Official Languages Self-Assessment Guide for Managers: Unilingual Regions for Language of Work Purposes

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to enable managers who are located in a unilingual region for language of work purposes and who provide supervision to employees located in that unilingual region to evaluate the official languages situation in their area of responsibility.

Note: For managers who are located in a unilingual region and who provide supervision to employees located in bilingual regions, please refer to the document entitled Official Languages Self-Assessment Guide for Managers Bilingual Regions for Language of Work Purposes.

The guide poses a series of questions which will allow them to assess the performance of their organization or unit in terms of its official languages responsibilities. In consideration of the results of this self assessment, it is the responsibility of the manager to take the necessary action(s) to correct or improve the situation by preparing an action plan with measurable activities and timelines.

The questions are divided into 3 parts:

1. Language of Work in Unilingual Regions;
2. Equitable Participation; and
3. Program Management..

Part I – Language of Work in Unilingual Regions

For unilingual regions, the language of work is the one that predominates in the province or territory where the work unit is located. There are, however, some exceptions. Therefore managers in a unilingual region for language of work purposes who provides supervision to employees located in that unilingual region must ensure the following obligations are respected.

Service Canada's unilingual regions are all those regions not identified below.

• The National Capital Region
• New Brunswick
• Parts of the Metropolitan Region of Montréal
• Parts of the Eastern Townships, the Gaspé Peninsula and West Quebec
• Parts of Northern and Eastern Ontario including the counties of Algoma, Cochrane, Nipissing, Sudbury, Timiskaming, and Glengarry, Prescott-Russell and Stormont-Dundas

Part II – Equitable Participation

Under the Official Languages Act, the federal government is committed to ensuring that Englishspeaking and French-speaking Canadians, without regard to their ethnic origin or first language learned, have equal opportunities to obtain employment and advancement in federal institutions, and that the composition of the workforce of federal institutions reflect the presence of both official languages communities in Canada, taking into consideration their mandate, the public they serve, and their location. Federal institutions and their managers, therefore, have a duty to support this commitment by ensuring that employment opportunities are open to all English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians.

NOTE: Some staffing approaches are UNACCEPTABLE. Please respond to the following:

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, the staffing approach you take is inappropriate and unacceptable. You are not providing equal opportunities for employment and advancement to members of both linguistic groups. You must review the policy on equitable participation.

Part III – Program Management

Managers are responsible for:

• objectively determining the official language requirements of positions in their office.
• managing processes which support the official languages program, namely:
  1. the bilingualism bonus;
  2. language training; and
  3. translation.