As Official Languages Champion and Chair of the Council, I am pleased to share the Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions’ submission for Blueprint 2020. Leveraging Bilingualism in the Public Service of the Future has now been sent to the Clerk of the Privy Council. If you have any questions about the report, please do not hesitate to contact the Council of the Network Coordinator, Diane Lalonde-Spring, at Diane.Lalonde-Spring@tbs-sct.gc.ca.

1. Government of Canada
Gouvernement du Canada
Council of the Network of
Official Languages Champions
Conseil du Réseau des
champions des langues officielles
Council of the Network of
Official Languages Champions
SUBMISSION TO BLUEPRINT 2020
Leveraging Bilingualism in the Public
Service of the Future
October 15, 2013
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2.
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
Blueprint 2020 Vision and Official Languages ................................................................................ 4
What the Blueprint 2020 Vision means for Official Languages in the Federal Public Service of the
Future .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Changes to Strengthen Bilingualism in the Federal Public Service to better Serve Canadians and
Canada ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Achieving the Blueprint 2020 Vision: How the Council of the Network of Official Languages
Champions Can Help ....................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion Leveraging Bilingualism in the Public Service of the Future ................................... 10
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3.
Dedication
The Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions dedicates its submission to
Blueprint 2020 to two public servants who died tragically following an accident in Ottawa the
morning of September 18, 2013. Karen Krzyzewski, Library and Archives Canada, and Michael
Bleakney, Public Works and Government Services Canada, loved their work. They were
dedicated to the Public Service and to serving Canadians. Both were beloved colleagues, who
supported their co-­‐workers with countless acts of kindness, grace and generosity. We wish to
acknowledge their service and inspire ourselves to continue to pursue excellence in the
workplace as they both did.
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4. Introduction
This report is the Council of the Network of
The Council is a horizontal organization of
Official Languages Champions (the Council)
the Government of Canada within which
contribution to the Blueprint 2020 exercise.
departments, agencies, Crown
Our community represents federal public
corporations and regional federal councils,
servants who advocate for and work to
large and small, all work together. The
facilitate and enable the use and promotion
Council has 23 members made up of 14
of both official languages across the Public
official languages champions, 3 regional
Service. In this document we outline our
representatives and 4 representatives of
response to the three questions posed in the
departments and agencies that have a
Blueprint 2020 consultations, specifically what
direct role in official languages, namely,
the Blueprint 2020 vision means for official
the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), the
languages in the Public Service; what changes,
Privy Council Office, Canadian Heritage
from the perspective of the use of English and
(PCH) and Justice Canada. The Executive
French in the Public Service workplace, would
have the greatest impact in making that vision
Community (NMC) and the Chair of the
a reality; and, what can the Network do to
Federal Youth Network (FYN) are also
help achieve the Blueprint 2020 vision.
members of the Council.
We have intentionally focussed on the
language-­‐of-­‐work dimension of official languages policy in the Government of Canada, with the
understanding that a more bilingual Public Service can only enhance its capacity to serve
Canadians in the official language of their choice, and contribute to protecting and enhancing
official language minority communities across this country.
Blueprint 2020 Vision and Official Languages
Across the Public Service, there is a desire for more freedom and less rigidity in how we practice
bilingualism and think about official languages. Language is a tool. It is, by any measure, the
most powerful workplace tool we have. When work can be conducted by people with the
collective ability to move seamlessly in and out of both official languages, stronger insights,
greater understanding, and better concepts result. When a workforce has two languages to
work with for sharing views, conveying information and expressing ideas
potential to communicate more effectively, expand imagination, generate better ideas and
increase workforce productivity. In this sense, mathematically speaking, two or more
employees each having two languages to work with is four times more powerful than having
only one.
However, the reality in practice is less inspiring. An observation that resonates with many
public servants concerns language training results versus the effectiveness of that training
namely, the dilemma of passing the language test but not being able to communicate, versus
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5. having the ability to communicate but not passing the test. Many who argue for a new
approach stress that while language training has its place it cannot be the beginning and the
end of the conversation about what to do to bolster bilingualism in the workplace. More is
needed to achieve the fluidity that ought to characterize how both official languages are used.
Another dilemma was described recently on CGConnex
government scientists, both francophone, being unable to speak about their latest research
findings with each other in French because both publish in English and were unfamiliar with the
French terminology of their field. These are just two examples of the day-­‐to-­‐day challenges
that beset the practice of bilingualism in the Public Service that no amount of administrative
rule-­‐making can be expected to solve.
Unlocking the potential of having two languages to work with is a cultural challenge. The
Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions is pleased to provide our views on the
proposed Blueprint 2020 vision and specifically, the contribution that strengthening
bilingualism can make to the Public Service of the future.
What the Blueprint 2020 Vision means for Official Languages in the
Federal Public Service of the Future
A world class Public Service equipped to serve Canada and Canadians now and in the future
involves striving for a more bilingual Public Service, fully equipped to support Canadians in both
official languages in a complex, inter-­‐connected and competitive world. It involves reaping the
advantages of bilingualism in the global knowledge economy, with a Public Service that fully
. At the individual level, these benefits include cognitive and
learning advantages such as meta-­‐linguistic awareness and stronger executive control functions
such as planning, time management, strategizing and memorization. Collectively, a more
bilingual Public Service positions Canada to excel in the global environment. Over a billion
people around the world speak either English or French, making institutional bilingualism and
linguistic duality strategic assess for engaging new Canadians and the world.
Achieving an open and networked environment involves enabling broader use of both official
languages across the Public Service in order to enable:
1. Networking, mobility, partnerships, information-­‐sharing and sharing of talent to develop
evidence-­‐based options and advice for the Government, achieve excellence in the design
and delivery of public sector policy, programs and services, and provide effective support to
Canadians; and,
2.
anywhere in Canada or around the world.
Advancing a whole-­‐of-­‐government approach that enhances service delivery and value for
money involves ensuring that common / shared service providers function effectively,
enterprise-­‐wide, in both official languages.
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6.
A modern, enabling workplace that makes smart use of new technologies involves fully
leveraging
potential to increase collaboration across federal institutions and
external stakeholders in a manner that ensures the use of both official languages is facilitated.
This requires acknowledging the tension that exists between open data and linguistic duality,
recognizing that technological advancements are taking us into a new era that will shift the
-­‐user of information. In the not too distant
future, on-­‐demand translation applications will exist that reliably, accurately and near-­‐instantly
translate information from one language to another. They will be available via web browsers
and desk-­‐top computer software suites, as well as on mobile computing hand-­‐held devices.
They will reduce and in some cases, eliminate the human-­‐assisted translation needed for much
of the information used in the day-­‐to-­‐day work environment. While official government
documents and statements of policy will always require human-­‐assisted translation and/or
review prior to publication for quality assurance and legal purposes, it is conceivable that the
Government of Canada will be able to make vast quantities of working-­‐level information
available in either official language so long as it also provides access to robust, automated
translation tools that allow the user to translate for him or herself.
Finally, a capable, confident and high-­‐performing workforce involves taking concrete steps to
enable effective collaboration across the Public Service regardless of language of work, ensuring
that knowledge and skills are fully leveraged. In a crisis, the Public Service can effectively
mobilize talent and find ways to forge highly effective bilingual teams. We need to learn from
this experience and make something we do well in a crisis reality on a day-­‐to-­‐day basis.
Changes to Strengthen Bilingualism in the Federal Public Service to
better Serve Canadians and Canada
To achieve a world class Public Service equipped to serve Canada and Canadians in both
official languages, we need to move beyond viewing linguistic duality as an obligation to seeing
it as an opportunity to drive excellence and a symbol of leadership, respect, understanding and
inclusiveness. Leadership and individual commitment are both required to achieve a Public
Service that values and embraces bilingualism as
Going forward, the goal of recruiting individuals to the Public Service equipped to function in
both official languages will continue to be a priority. Leadership will be needed to encourage
ystems and particularly, its post-­‐secondary institutions, to produce
bilingual graduates. We have repeatedly heard that we will need to be bolder in branding the
Public Service as an employer that values bilingualism, signalling its many advantages for
individuals including those who have career aspirations that extend beyond Canada to the
world stage. We have heard from many public servants, including those who are new to
government, that future recruits must come ready with the job skills needed for a public service
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7. career, and in many cases this means entering the public service with the capability of working
in both official languages.
maintain second language skills. Regardless of who pays the employee or the employer
acquired second language skills must be used to be maintained. Individual commitment should
be supported by leadership that creates opportunities to practice second language skills in the
workplace, including with innovative, low-­‐cost language learning and maintenance tools. The
bilingually are recognized and rewarded.
An open and networked environment that engages citizens and partners for the public good
requires that we recognize that with mobile technologies, mobile work and ubiquitous,
by geography. Offic
-­‐
should be dictated by who is served and the communities and stakeholders with whom public
servants interact, in-­‐
adjusting the distinction between bilingual and unilingual regions. This would require more
emphasis on second language acquisition and maintenance in the workplace and consequential
investments in low-­‐cost language technologies such as innovative online language learning
applications, mobile device applications for real-­‐time language interpretation, and automated
desk-­‐top translation tools for non-­‐official documentation.
Meanwhile, repurposing the bilingualism bonus could provide the financial resources required
to make targeted investments in technologies that enable second language acquisition and
maintenance. The Bonus has remained $800 annually since its inception in 1976, making it of
much less value to individuals today as compared to when it was introduced. There is a
compelling argument that both public servants and Canadians would be better off were these
resources applied to the workplace tools and applications that can assist employees in
acquiring and maintaining second language skills. Many public servants could benefit,
particularly if the performance management system recognizes bilingual competencies and
enables career advancement for those employees who, among other things, enhance their
language skills.
A whole-­‐of-­‐government approach that enhances service delivery and value for money
requires the recognition that with greater standardization, consolidation and the widespread
adoption of common and shared services for corporate administrative and other functions, the
languages of work used in the Public Service institutions that provide these services must
inevitably transcend geographic regions and thus, for language-­‐of-­‐work purposes, the
distinction between bilingual and unilingual regions. This demands that we ensure
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8. that common / shared service providers, wherever they are located, have the flexibility
necessary to staff and maintain workplaces that function effectively in both official languages,
and that the tools and services they develop and provide to the rest of the Public Service
language-­‐of-­‐work rights.
A modern, enabling workplace that makes smart use of new technologies to improve
networking, access to data and customer service involves changing the culture to enable
innovation around official languages and language of work. Among other things, this could
involve making a deliberate effort to test and pilot new workplace technologies and system
applications in French first, recognizing that this is more likely to reveal difficulties that must be
addressed to ensure work environments are conducive to the effective use of both official
languages. It will also require ever-­‐greening official language policy to allow the Public Service
to adopt new technologies that enable open access to data and information, and effective and
efficient knowledge transfer, as they are perfected and introduced.
There are also opportunities to leverage technology and the networks of expertise it mobilizes
to help serve and support official language minority communities. There are legitimate
concerns that budget pressures are impacting travel and the traditional ways of connecting
with and supporting these communities. However, technology-­‐enabled outreach creates
opportunities to address these challenges.
A capable, confident and high-­‐performing workforce that embraces new ways of working
involves encouraging more Public Service work environments to become conducive to the use
of both official languages, including by:
1. Ensuring all Public Service employees have equitable access to language training regardless
of where they work. Our consultations have clearly signalled that public servants are ready
and willing to take on the responsibility of managing their own careers, and working
towards skills upgrading, including acquiring and maintaining their second official language.
innovative ways, on the job and during their own time; and,
2. Providing more innovative, low-­‐cost language learning and maintenance tools and activities
to ensure that as more positions are identified as bilingual, successful candidates who do
not meet language requirements can obtain the required level of proficiency, ensuring the
equitable participation of English-­‐ and French-­‐speakers in the Public Service.
These efforts could also be supported by leveraging performance management to encourage
second language acquisition, use and maintenance, including by:
1. Assessing employee performance using appropriate core and functional competencies that
reinforce linguistic duality and encourage second language acquisition and maintenance;
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9. 2.
and development plans; and,
3. Developing functional competencies for managers / supervisors that emphasize their
responsibilities to help create workplaces conducive to the use of both languages.
Achieving the Blueprint 2020 Vision: How the Council of the Network of
Official Languages Champions Can Help
In considering the Blueprint 2020 vision, Official Languages Champions can play an
instrumental role in helping to strengthen bilingualism across the Public Service to help
achieve it. However, the Council believes that in order to contribute in practical and meaningful
ways, Champions will need to go beyond promotional and ambassadorial functions to playing a
strategic and tactical role as agents of change. The Council would mobilize our network
members, identifying strategic opportunities and targeted investments to facilitate and enable
change that positions the Public Service to continue to evolve bilingually, optimizing the
advantages to Canada and Canadians of working and serving the public in both official
languages.
Initially, this will require that Official Language Champions strengthen their networking
capacity. We will need to work together through the Council to define how we can add value
and assume responsibilities associated with acting as agents of change.
Already, our Champions are discussing a number of strategic opportunities. For example,
Official Language Champions could work to strengthen the recruitment of bilingual candidates
with their respective Deputy Heads, each of which is a champion for a post-­‐secondary
institution in Canada. In addition to spreading the message about
Canada and its value and relevance in an interconnected world, Champions could work with
bilingual graduates each produces.
To support an open and networked environment, we would work together to identify strategic
changes that may be required to official languages policy to support efforts to strengthen and
modernize practices associated with institutional bilingualism. We would identify and promote
opportunities to incubate and / or use new language technologies that support language
maintenance and effective bilingual workplaces. We have heard repeatedly about the
dominance of English in online networks and virtual knowledge communities. We would focus
on how to strengthen knowledge networks to improve their utility for and relevance to the
work of the Public Service in the French language. This could include facilitating
participation in global knowledge networks to improve their relevance / applicability / utility for
the work of the Public Service in French (e.g., http://fr.wikipedia.org), recognizing that this
benefits not only Canada, but all the countries of the Francophonie.
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10.
To support the whole-­‐of-­‐government approach that enhances service delivery and value-­‐for-­‐
money, we would identify policy changes and / or strategic interventions required to ensure
that for common /shared service providers, all regions are effectively bilingual and all work
instruments and electronic systems they are responsible for are available to employees in both
official languages. The Council recognizes that this cannot be an afterthought. It must be a
-­‐
o build the structures that support greater collaboration,
an enterprise-­‐wide management culture and enterprise-­‐wide systems.
To support a modern, enabling workplace that makes smart use of new technologies, the
Council would strengthen the capacity of its network members to work with their deputy heads
to ensure that use of new technologies facilitates linguistic duality within the Public Service,
fostering a vibrant, diverse and bilingual workforce.
To support a capable, confident and high-­‐performing workforce, the Council would step-­‐up its
efforts to identify and exchange best practices conducive to the use of both official languages in
the workplace, and work with deputy heads to support their adoption in departments and
agencies. One such practice, for example, is the Department of Canadian Heritage practice of
tabling management presentations in one language, and speaking to them in the other. We
would also work to identify innovative, effective and low-­‐cost language learning and second-­‐
language maintenance tools and activities to recommend to deputy heads. We would support
our network members to make the business case to deputy heads to acquire these learning
tools and resources, and to work with departments and agencies to ensure they are used
effectively, including through the performance management process.
Conclusion Leveraging Bilingualism in the Public Service of the Future
In this document, we advance a number of observations and ideas for what the Public Service
needs to be in the future, centred on strengthening bilingualism. In summary:
On recruitment, we argue the Public Service must be bolder about branding itself as an
employer that values bilingualism and the career advantages of being bilingual;
On language learning and maintenance, we are calling for a more systematic approach to
ensuring acquired second language
skills are used in the workplace
function bilingually through the performance management process;
On technology, we believe that with a deliberate approach, new technologies have
enormous potential to facilitate broader use of both official languages across the Public
Service and enable low-­‐cost language learning and maintenance in the workplace;
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11. On resourcing efforts to become more bilingual, we propose that re-­‐purposing the
bilingualism bonus should be considered, to make funds available to support targeted
investments in innovative, low-­‐cost technologies that enable second language acquisition
and maintenance in the workplace;
On open data and knowledge transfer, we foresee tension between open data and
linguistic duality in the Public Service soon becoming moot, as powerful and ubiquitous
translation tools enable working-­‐level information published in any language to be instantly
translated by the user on any computing device;
On geographically-­‐defined bilingual regions, we are signalling that in a wireless, networked
and virtual world, with greater consolidation and the transition to common / shared service
providers enterprise-­‐wide, the time has come to look at updating policy concerning
language-­‐of-­‐work in the Public Service. We must ensure it supports the timely adoption of
new technologies, whole-­‐of-­‐government approaches, the furtherance of an open and
networked environment, assurance of access to government information and services in
and
workplaces conducive to the use of both official languages; and finally,
On global leadership, with over a billion people in the world who speak at least one of our
two official languages, we are convinced that a bilingual Public Service positions Canada to
excel in the global environment. Linguistic duality gives us the capacity to engage with more
people and influence more nations at the working level than many larger, unilingual
countries. We should be looking to fully leverage this capacity
advantage on the world stage.
In closing, we want to thank the many public servants who shared their thoughts and views
with us. In particular, we thank the Federal Youth Network which was instrumental in helping
innovative ways to respect
-­‐of-­‐work rights while achieving a more bilingual
workplace. We thank the executives with whom we spoke who emphasize that it is a key
leadership responsibility to create workplaces conducive to both official languages, and who
believe that we can reap many rewards from being open to new and innovative thinking about
official languages at a time when we are stretched for resources. We also want to recognize our
many regional colleagues, who have reminded us of the challenges and the opportunities they
face in serving official language minority communities, and the growing importance of finding
innovative solutions to ensure these efforts are sustained. Finally, we thank functional
communities which have clearly signalled their need to better leverage expertise across the
Public Service through collaboration and knowledge transfer unimpeded by language-­‐of-­‐work.
Many of the observations and recommendations in this submission were crystallized at an
armchair discussion on Blueprint 2020 and Official Languages hosted by the Canada School of
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12. Public Service on September 12, 2013. We thank our speakers at this event who were Daniel
Watson, Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat; Graham Fraser,
Commissioner of Official Languages; Liseanne Forand, President, Shared Services Canada, and
Kristina Brown, former National Coordinator of the Federal Youth Network. Their thoughtful
and provocative contributions stimulated a wide-­‐ranging discussion amongst the 46 on-­‐site
attendees and over 200 webcast participants. We thank the Canada School for making the
event a successful milestone in our efforts to gather input and advice.
The Blueprint 2020 vision is based on the argument that engagement, collaboration, effective
teamwork and professional development are all essential to a high-­‐performing organization.
The Council wholeheartedly agrees. We also strongly believe that one of the greatest assets the
Public Service of Canada already has is its bilingual capacity in French and English and that this
powerful cultural asset is integral to engagement, collaboration, effective teamwork and
professional development in our workforce. We are proudly bilingual in service to Canada and
Canadians. We must protect, enhance and leverage this competitive advantage as we look to
the future.
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