As one of the funding people of this province, Francophones have the legal right to access provincial government services in their own language. The Office of Francophone Affairs (OFA) was created to ensure that Francophones’ concerns could be heard and addressed, and that ministries respect the French-language Services (FLS) Act requirements.
Over the years, however, the proportion of the Francophone population declined to approximately 600,000, or a little over 5% of the total Ontarian population. This demographic decline resulted in a parallel decline in accessibility and/or quality of FLS from provincial ministries.
This trend is very problematic on many levels. From a public service perspective, the government is always at risk of being challenged in the courts by Francophones; a recent case resulted in a landmark decision in favour of Francophones’ rights, which further increased this risk. From a community perspective, the rarefaction of FLS typically increases the assimilation rate, which further exacerbates the issue. Last, but not least, from an individual perspective, the inability to receive services in your own language in your own country is always frustrating, and can sometimes be tragic. Research indicates that people in general, and seniors in particular, tend to not only revert to their mother tongue in times of stress, they also tend to no longer understand or process correctly their second language, assuming they have one of course. As a case in point: a Francophone senior was rushed to the emergencies in 2008; she could not communicate in French at the Hospital to explain her condition or answer the doctors’ questions. Tragically, by the time a translator arrived, her condition had taken a turn for the worse and she eventually passed away as a direct result of lack of FLS.
The protection of minority rights is at the very core of our democratic societies. Whether we refer to linguistic, cultural or religious minorities, governments tend to face very similar challenges of limited resources, lack of awareness, poor accountability mechanisms, public indifference, or worse, resentment from some the groups from the vast majority of society.
With a staff capacity of 20, and very limited resources to influence the 26 ministries forming the provincial government, the OFA’s ongoing challenge is to strategically leverage its policy initiatives to ensure maximum impact and sustainability.
To address this challenge, the OFA developed a multi-pronged strategy based on three interconnected initiatives:
1. Design and implementation of an innovative accountability framework for FLS (“FLS Performance Measurement Framework”);
2. Creation of an innovative and award-winning leadership program for bilingual staff (“FLEX”); and
3. Development of a new online Compendium of effective FLS practices (“Compendium”).
Combined, these initiatives have allowed to create a new community of practice among bilingual staff, raise awareness levels across government about FLS while embedding new accountability expectations in the annual Result-based planning (RbP) exercise led by the Ministry of Finance, and providing new resources to support ministries. This low-budget approach continues to prove very effective in Ontario, and would translate easily to other policy-settings focusing on the protection of minority rights.
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