Government response to House Official Languages Committee lost in translation

Cost cutting versus quality is an ongoing theme bedeviling the government’s ambition and obligation to provide access of equal quality in the official language of choice. It will get worse, not better, especially if a new system for procuring the services of interpreters is allowed to go forward. After many delays, the new system scheduled to be in place Jan. 23, 2017, is still in need of a major overhaul.

The Trudeau government has stated that it places high value on official languages and wants to be judged by how well it communicates with Canadians in English and in French. Unhappy MPs on the House Official Languages Committee will be looking for answers when Public Services Minister Judy Foote, the minister responsible for the government’s response on this, testifies this week.The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY NICOLE GAGNON

December 5, 2016

OTTAWA—Something unexplained happened after MPs on the House Official Languages Committee published a report calling for sweeping reform to the federal Translation Bureau. As if its report was written in a language not understoo...

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