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

• 1.1This directive comes into effect on August 23, 2022.
• 1.2This directive replaces the following instruments:
  • The 2012 Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations;
  • The 2016 amendment to the Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations.

• 2.1This directive applies to all institutions subject to the Official Languages Act (OLA), including departments, agencies, Crown corporations, and privatized organizations that are subject to incorporating legislation or any other legislation that contains provisions that subject them to the OLA, except for the Senate, the House of Commons, the Library of Parliament, the Office of the Senate Ethics Officer, and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

• 3.1The OLA is based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The OLA reaffirms the equality of status of English and French as the official languages of Canada, and establishes equal rights and privileges as to their use in the institutions of the Government of Canada. The OLA sets out the obligations of institutions with regard to official languages. The Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations (the Regulations) implement subsection 20(1) of the Charter and some of the key sections of Part IV of the OLA regarding communications with and services to the public. The Regulations specify the circumstances under which the “nature” of the office justifies the provision of bilingual services, and set criteria to determine whether there is significant demand for services in both official languages. Most of the provisions of the Regulations aiming to determine whether there is significant demand in an office require the use of data from the most recent decennial census or the presence of minority language primary or secondary public educational facilities.
• 3.2This directive supports the Policy on Official Languages by covering various operational aspects associated with the implementation of the Regulations, namely:
  • The time frame for an office automatically designated bilingual, under a provision related to the nature of the office or to significant demand, to implement the measures enabling the office to fulfill its language obligations;
  • The time frame for an office to define its service area;
  • The applicable terms and conditions for demographic protection;
  • The time allotted to an institution to measure demand for services in both official languages and the associated terms and conditions;
  • The time frame for an office designated bilingual, after demand has been measured, to implement the measures enabling the office to fulfill its language obligations;
  • The cycle for updating the language designation of offices subject to provisions related to specific circumstances;
  • The cycle for updating the language designation of offices subject to provisions related to the presence, in their service area, of a minority language primary or secondary public educational facility;
  • The terms and conditions and the transition period that apply to offices that are no longer required to provide services in both official languages; and
  • A clear definition of what constitutes a service area, a minority language public educational facility, demographic protection, as well as restricted and identifiable clientele.
• 3.3This directive helps federal institutions comply with the Regulations. The directive enables the Government of Canada to reduce the risks of legal complaints due to the failure of institutions to respect the rights of the public to communicate with and receive services from these institutions in the official language of the public’s choice.
• 3.4This directive is issued by the Treasury Board pursuant to section 46 of the OLA.
• 3.5This directive must be read in conjunction with Part IV of the OLA, its Regulations, the Policy on Official Languages and the Directive on Official Languages for Communications and Services.

Refer to the Appendix of this directive.

• 5.1Objective
  • The purpose of this directive is to ensure, while respecting the spirit of the Charter and the OLA, a consistent and coherent implementation of the Regulations by specifying certain aspects.
• 5.2Expected results
  • In situations where a measurement of demand for services must be conducted, institutions have determined the language designation according to the methods and the time frames prescribed in this directive;
  • In situations where the principle of proportionality applies, institutions have determined the number of designated bilingual offices according to the requirements of the Regulations and of this directive, and have consulted the linguistic minority population about which office location or locations should be designated bilingual;
  • Institutions have respected the time frames that apply in situations where an office must define its service area;
  • A newly designated bilingual office has implemented measures to fulfill its language obligations within the time frames prescribed in this directive;
  • Institutions have respected the time frames and terms and conditions that apply when an office is no longer required to provide services in both official languages;
  • Institutions have updated the language designation of their offices according to the terms and conditions and time frames prescribed in this directive;
  • The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has updated the list of minority language primary or secondary public educational facilities following the publication of the linguistic data from the most recent decennial census and five years after the publication of this data for the purposes of paragraph 5(1)(d.1) of the Regulations; and
  • Institutions have updated government records, systems and databases, as provided for in this directive.

• 6.1Application of the Regulations

  The deputy head or their delegate is responsible for the following:

  • 6.1.1Ensuring that any office that has to measure demand for services by the public fulfill its obligations in this regard as soon as possible. The office has a maximum of two years to do so from the date on which the office was created or from the date on which the provisions of the Regulations applied in light of the data from the most recent decennial census, as appropriate;
  • 6.1.2Determining whether some of their offices serve a public that meets the definition of “restricted and identifiable clientele” set out in this directive. If necessary, ensuring that demand is measured using a method that enables such offices to determine the language preference of each of their clients;
  • 6.1.3Ensuring that any office that has to define its service area fulfill its obligations in this regard as soon as possible. The office has a maximum of six months to do so from the date on which the office was created or from the date on which the provisions of the Regulations applied in light of the data from the most recent decennial census, as appropriate;
  • 6.1.4In situations where the principle of proportionality applies, if the calculation of the number of offices that must provide services in both official languages results in a fraction, ensuring that the fraction is rounded up to the nearest whole number. If the institution provides any key services in the Montréal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver census metropolitan areas (CMAs), ensuring that one office is added to the resulting number; and
  • 6.1.5When the principle of proportionality applies to their offices, ensuring that the English or French linguistic minority population they serve is consulted about the location of any office or offices that have significant demand for services in both official languages. The institution has a maximum of six months from the date on which the number of bilingual offices was determined to complete these consultations and to identify which office or offices are designated bilingual.
  • 6.1.6

    The deputy head or their delegated office manager is responsible for the following:

    Ensuring that any office subject to a provision of the Regulations that provides for the delivery of bilingual services implements the measures needed to fulfill its language obligations as soon as possible. The office has a maximum of one year to do so from the date on which its language designation was determined or from the date on which the thresholds set by the Regulations were reached, as appropriate;
  • 6.1.7Ensuring that any office that is subject to a provision related to general circumstances and that is no longer required to provide services in both official languages continue to provide bilingual services until the office informs the minority population that it serves of the terms and conditions of the discontinuation of bilingual services and the scheduled date on which bilingual services will be discontinued. The office must also inform the minority population about websites or locations of offices where services will be provided in the minority population’s official language in person, by telephone or in writing. The office has a maximum of one year to do so; and
  • 6.1.8Ensuring that any office that has to measure the public’s demand for services, according to the provisions related to specific circumstances, has a maximum period of one year, from the date on which the language designation was determined, to stop providing bilingual services.
• 6.2Updating the language designation of offices following the decennial census of the population

  The deputy head or their delegate is responsible for the following:

  • 6.2.1Reviewing and updating, every 10 years, the language designation of offices subject to paragraphs 9(d) to (f) and 10(d) of the Regulations and of all offices subject to the provisions of the Regulations relating to significant demand following the publication of data on the English or French linguistic minority population, as defined in section 2.1 of the Regulations;
  • 6.2.2Fulfilling their obligations to do so according to the terms and conditions, and within the time frames established in subsection 6.1 of this directive: Application of the Regulations;
  • 6.2.3Reviewing the language designation of offices subject to the service area provisions of the Regulations five years after the publication of the data on the English or French linguistic minority population, as defined in section 2.1 of the Regulations, and updating the language designation of offices when there is a new minority language primary or secondary public educational facility in their service area. The institution has a maximum of six months from the date on which the updated list of minority language educational facilities was made available to do so; and
  • 6.2.4In the case of an office that is subject to general circumstances based on linguistic data from the most recent decennial census and that would no longer be required to provide services in both official languages after the language designation of offices is updated, ensuring that demographic protection is applied (subsection 5(3.1) of the Regulations) before implementing subsection 6.1.5 or 6.1.7 of this directive, as appropriate.
• 6.3Other requirements concerning the measurement of demand

  The deputy head or their delegate is responsible for the following:

  • 6.3.1Ensuring that proven methods are used to obtain results for offices, except for those serving restricted and identifiable clientele, that must measure the demand for services in both official languages;
  • 6.3.2Ensuring that the rights of respondents to use either official language are respected when offices must measure demand;
  • 6.3.3Ensuring that respondents are informed that their responses will be used to determine the language designation of the office where a measurement of demand is conducted;
  • 6.3.4In cases where respondents chose both English and French as their preferred language for communications and services during a measurement of demand, ensuring that these responses are included in the data in favour of the minority language;
  • 6.3.5For offices subject to specific circumstances, ensuring that demand is measured again when the circumstances of an office have changed;
  • 6.3.6Providing the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada with the results of the measurement of demand and the methodology used; and
  • 6.3.7Keeping in mind that the measurement of demand set out in this directive is not public opinion research, as defined in the Directive on the Management of Communications, and therefore does not require the application of Appendix C: Mandatory Procedures for Public Opinion Research.
• 6.4Monitoring and reporting
  • 6.4.1Government-wide

    Evaluation of the implementation of the above requirements is conducted using performance measurement tools identified by the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

  • 6.4.2Within institutions

    The deputy head or their delegate is responsible for:

    • Monitoring their institution’s compliance with this directive and taking the necessary corrective measures if gaps are noted;
    • Ensuring that files and information systems used to prepare reports to the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat are kept up to date; and
    • Ensuring that government databases used to inform the public about the language designation of federal offices and their locations are kept up to date.

The consequences of non-compliance with this directive are listed in the Policy on Official Languages, section 7: Consequences.

This section identifies the roles of other key government organizations in relation to this directive. In and of itself, this section does not confer any authority.

• 8.1The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is responsible for:
  • Ensuring the integrity of the application of the Regulations by providing institutions with advice and guidance on the Regulations and their application;
  • Providing institutions with data on the English or French linguistic minority population, as defined in section 2.1 of the Regulations, and coordinating updates to the language designation of offices for all institutions subject to the OLA following the publication by Statistics Canada of the data on the English or French linguistic minority population from the most recent decennial census; and
  • Providing institutions with the list of minority language primary or secondary public educational facilities.
• 8.2Statistics Canada gathers data on official languages and publishes data on the English or French linguistic minority population, as defined in section 2.1 of the Regulations. Upon request and for a fee, Statistics Canada can provide institutions with a consultation service and a service to develop survey methodology.
• 8.3Refer to the Policy on Official Languages, section 8: Roles and Responsibilities of Government Organizations.

Please direct all requests for information about this directive to the person responsible for official languages in your institution.