Bill S-220

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First Reading

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3rd Session, 40th Parliament,

59 Elizabeth II, 2010

senate of canada

BILL S-220

An Act to amend the Official Languages Act (communications with and services to the public)

1985, c. 31 (4th Supp.)

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

1. Subsection 3(1) of the Official Languages Act is amended by adding the following in alphabetical order:

“designated carrier”
« transporteur désigné »

“designated carrier” means a business or undertaking, and any subsidiary thereof, incorporated pursuant to an Act of Parliament or of the legislature of a province or territory and designated by regulation, that provides rail, maritime or air transportation services and related services prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council;

“metropolitan area”
« région métropolitaine »

“metropolitan area” means any area that is classified by Statistics Canada in its most recent census of Canada as a census metropolitan area;

“provincial or territorial institution”
« institutions provinciales ou territoriales »

“provincial or territorial institution” includes any of the following institutions of the legislature or government of a province or territory:

(a) any provincial or territorial court,

(b) any board, commission, council, office, municipal institution or other body established to perform a governmental function by or pursuant to an Act of the legislature of a province or territory or by or under the authority of the lieutenant governor in council of a province or commissioner in council of a territory,

(d) a Crown corporation established by or pursuant to an Act of the legislature of a province or territory, and

(e) any other body that is specified by an Act of the legislature of a province or territory to be an agent of Her Majesty in right of the province or territory or to be subject to the direction of the lieutenant governor in council of the province or commissioner in council of the territory or a provincial or territorial minister of the Crown;

2. Sections 21 to 23 of the Act are replaced by the following:

Rights relating to language of communication

21. Any member of the public in Canada has the right to communicate with and to receive available services from federal institutions and designated carriers in accordance with this Part.

Where communications and services must be in both official languages: federal institutions

22. (1) Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from its head or central office in either official language, and has the same duty with respect to any of its other offices or facilities

(a) within the National Capital Region;

(b) in a region where provincial or territorial institutions have a legal or administrative duty to communicate with and offer services to members of the public in both official languages; or

(c) in Canada or elsewhere, where there is significant demand for communications with and services from that office or facility in that language.

Trans-Canada Highway

(2) The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is required to communicate with and provide services to the public in either official language on those portions of the Trans-Canada Highway served by its detachments.

Where communications and services must be in both official languages: designated carriers

23. (1) Every designated carrier has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from its head or central office in either official language, and has the same duty with respect to any of its other offices or facilities in Canada or elsewhere where there is significant demand for communications and services in that language.

Application in certain locations

(1.1) Federal institutions and designated carriers are required to communicate with and provide services to the public in either official language in the following locations:

(a) railway stations and airports serving a metropolitan area;

(b) railway stations and airports serving the national capital or the capital of a province or territory;

(d) railway stations, airports, ferry terminals, public ports and public port facilities prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council.

Services provided pursuant to a contract

(2) Every federal institution and designated carrier has the duty to ensure that such services to the public as may be prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council that are provided or made available by another person or organization pursuant to a contract with the federal institution or designated carrier for the provision of those services at an office or facility referred to in section 22 or this section are provided or made available, in both official languages, in the manner prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council.

Equal quality

23.1 (1) Every federal institution and designated carrier has the duty to take every reasonable measure to ensure that communications with and services to members of the public are of equal quality in both official languages.

Consultation

(2) Every federal institution and designated carrier shall, in the manner prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council, consult the English and French linguistic minority communities and, where appropriate, members of the public generally on the quality of the communications and services that they offer to the public in each of the official languages.

3. The portion of subsection 24(1) before paragraph (a) and paragraph 24(1)(a) of the Act are replaced by the following:

Nature of the office

24. (1) Every federal institution or designated carrier has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate in either official language with, and obtain available services in either official language from, any of its offices or facilities in Canada or elsewhere

(a) in any circumstances prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council that relate to any of the following:

(i) the health, safety or security of members of the public,

(ii) the location of the office or facility, or

(iii) the national or international mandate or services of the office;

(a.1) in any circumstances prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council where the services in question significantly affect or benefit the English or French linguistic minority population in a given geographic area;

(a.2) in any circumstances prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council, relating to the loss of the language or linguistic assimilation, where the application of this subsection is likely to lead to the revitalization or advancement of the use of the language of the English or French linguistic minority population; or

4. Section 25 of the Act is replaced by the following:

Where services provided on behalf of federal institutions and designated carriers

25. Every federal institution and designated carrier has the duty to ensure that, where services are provided or made available by another person or organization on its behalf, any member of the public in Canada or elsewhere can communicate with and obtain those services from that person or organization in either official language in any case where those services, if provided by the institution or carrier, would be required under this Part to be provided in either official language.

5. Sections 28 to 30 of the Act are replaced by the following:

Active offer

28. Every federal institution and designated carrier that is required under this Part to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from an office or facility of that institution or carrier, or of another person or organization on behalf of that institution or carrier, in either official language shall ensure that appropriate measures are taken, including the provision of signs, notices and other information on services and the initiation of communication with the public, to make it known to members of the public that those services are available in either official language at the choice of any member of the public.

Signs identifying offices

29. Where a federal institution or designated carrier identifies any of its offices or facilities with signs, each sign shall include both official languages or be placed together with a similar sign of equal prominence in the other official language.

Manner of communicating

30. Subject to Part II, where a federal institution or designated carrier is engaged in communications with members of the public in both official languages as required in this Part, it shall communicate by using such media of communication as will reach members of the public in the official language of their choice in an effective and efficient manner that is consistent with the purposes of this Act.

6. (1) Paragraphs 32(1)(a) and (b) of the Act are replaced by the following:

(a) prescribing the circumstances in which there is significant demand for the purpose of paragraph 22(1)(c) or subsection 23(1);

(b) prescribing circumstances not otherwise provided for under this Part in which federal institutions or designated carriers have the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from offices of the institution in either official language;

(2) Paragraphs 32(1)(d) and (e) of the Act are replaced by the following:

(d) designating carriers and their subsidiaries for the purpose of the definition “designated carrier” in subsection 3(1);

(e) prescribing transportation services and related services for the purpose of the definition “designated carrier” in subsection 3(1);

(f) designating railway stations, ferry terminals, public ports, public port facilities and airports for the purpose of paragraph 23(1.1)(d);

(g) establishing the manner in which the consultations referred to in subsection 23.1(2) are to be carried out;

(h) prescribing circumstances, in relation to the public, for the purpose of paragraphs 24(1)(a), (a.1) and (a.2) or (b); and

(i) establishing the manner in which the review referred to in section 32.1 is to be carried out.

(3) The portion of subsection 32(2) before paragraph (a) and paragraphs 32(2)(a) and (b) of the Act are replaced by the following:

Where circumstances prescribed under paragraph 1(a) or (b)

(2) In prescribing circumstances under paragraph (1)(a) or (b), the Governor in Council shall have regard to

(a) the number of people who can communicate in the language of the English or French linguistic minority population of the area served by an office or facility;

(b) the particular characteristics, including the institutional vitality, of the English or French linguistic minority population of the area served by an office or facility; and

7. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 32:

Decennial review

32.1 (1) In the sixty days following the publication of each decennial census, the President of the Treasury Board, or such other minister of the Crown as may be designated by the Governor in Council, shall undertake a review of regulations made under this Part and shall complete it within one year from the time when the review was undertaken.

Manner

(2) The review provided for in subsection (1) shall be carried out in the manner prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council.

8. Section 33 of the Act is replaced by the following:

Regulations

33. The Governor in Council may make any regulations that the Governor in Council deems necessary to foster actively communications with and services from offices or facilities of designated carriers and federal institutions — other than the Senate, House of Commons, Library of Parliament, office of the Senate Ethics Officer or office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner — in both official languages, if those communications and services are required under this Part to be provided in both official languages.

9. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 86:

Definition of “regulation”

86.1 (1) In this section and section 86.2, “regulation” means any regulation that relates to the application of Part IV relating to one of the following areas:

(a) exempting from the application of that Part certain communications or services offered to the public in either official language by a federal institution or designated carrier; and

(b) relieving a federal institution or designated carrier of the duty, under that Part, to communicate with or offer services to the public in either official language.

Publication of proposed regulation

(2) The President of the Treasury Board, or such other minister of the Crown as may be designated by the Governor in Council, shall, where the Governor in Council intends to make a regulation, lay a draft of the proposed regulation before each House of Parliament at least thirty days before a copy of the proposed regulation is published in the Canada Gazette under section 86.2.

Calculation of thirty day period

(3) In calculating the thirty day period referred to in subsection (2), there shall not be counted any day on which neither House of Parliament sits.

Publication of proposed regulation

86.2 (1) A proposed regulation shall be published in the Canada Gazette and, wherever possible, be printed in one of the official languages in at least one publication in general circulation within each region where the matter applies that appears wholly or mainly in that language and in the other official language in at least one publication in general circulation within each region where the matter applies that appears wholly or mainly in that other language at least thirty days before the proposed effective date thereof, and a reasonable opportunity shall be afforded to interested persons to make representations to the President of the Treasury Board with respect thereto.

Exception

(2) No proposed regulation need be published under subsection (1) if it has previously been published pursuant to that subsection, whether or not it has been amended as a result of representations made pursuant to that subsection.

Calculation of thirty day period

(3) In calculating the thirty day period referred to in subsection (1), there shall not be counted any day on which neither House of Parliament sits.

Coming into force

10. This Act comes into force one hundred and eighty days after the day on which it receives royal assent.

Published under authority of the Senate of Canada

Available from:
Publishing and Depository Services
Public Works and Government Services Canada

Explanatory Notes

Official Languages Act

Clause 1: New.

Clause 2: Text of sections 21 to 23:

21. Any member of the public in Canada has the right to communicate with and to receive available services from federal institutions in accordance with this Part.

22. Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from its head or central office in either official language, and has the same duty with respect to any of its other offices or facilities

(a) within the National Capital Region; or

(b) in Canada or elsewhere, where there is significant demand for communications with and services from that office or facility in that language.

23. (1) For greater certainty, every federal institution that provides services or makes them available to the travelling public has the duty to ensure that any member of the travelling public can communicate with and obtain those services in either official language from any office or facility of the institution in Canada or elsewhere where there is significant demand for those services in that language.

(2) Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that such services to the travelling public as may be prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council that are provided or made available by another person or organization pursuant to a contract with the federal institution for the provision of those services at an office or facility referred to in subsection (1) are provided or made available, in both official languages, in the manner prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council.

Clause 3: Relevant portion of subsection 24(1):

24. (1) Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate in either official language with, and obtain available services in either official language from, any of its offices or facilities in Canada or elsewhere

(a) in any circumstances prescribed by regulation of the Governor in Council that relate to any of the following:

(i) the health, safety or security of members of the public,

(ii) the location of the office or facility, or

(iii) the national or international mandate of the office; or

Clause 4: Text of section 25:

25. Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that, where services are provided or made available by another person or organization on its behalf, any member of the public in Canada or elsewhere can communicate with and obtain those services from that person or organization in either official language in any case where those services, if provided by the institution, would be required under this Part to be provided in either official language.

Clause 5: Text of sections 28 to 30:

28. Every federal institution that is required under this Part to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from an office or facility of that institution, or of another person or organization on behalf of that institution, in either official language shall ensure that appropriate measures are taken, including the provision of signs, notices and other information on services and the initiation of communication with the public, to make it known to members of the public that those services are available in either official language at the choice of any member of the public.

29. Where a federal institution identifies any of its offices or facilities with signs, each sign shall include both official languages or be placed together with a similar sign of equal prominence in the other official language.

30. Subject to Part II, where a federal institution is engaged in communications with members of the public in both official languages as required in this Part, it shall communicate by using such media of communication as will reach members of the public in the official language of their choice in an effective and efficient manner that is consistent with the purposes of this Act.

Clause 6: Relevant portions of section 32:

32. (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations

(a) prescribing the circumstances in which there is significant demand for the purpose of paragraph 22(b) or subsection 23(1);

(b) prescribing circumstances not otherwise provided for under this Part in which federal institutions have the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from offices of the institution in either official language;

. . .

(d) prescribing circumstances, in relation to the public or the travelling public, for the purpose of paragraph 24(1)(a) or (b); and

(e) defining the expression “English or French linguistic minority population” for the purpose of paragraph (2)(a).

(2) In prescribing circumstances under paragraph (1)(a) or (b), the Governor in Council may have regard to

(a) the number of persons composing the English or French linguistic minority population of the area served by an office or facility, the particular characteristics of that population and the proportion of that population to the total population of that area;

(b) the volume of communications or services between an office or facility and members of the public using each official language; and

Clause 7: New.

Clause 8: Text of section 33:

33. The Governor in Council may make any regulations that the Governor in Council deems necessary to foster actively communications with and services from offices or facilities of federal institutions — other than the Senate, House of Commons, Library of Parliament, office of the Senate Ethics Officer or office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner — in both official languages, if those communications and services are required under this Part to be provided in both official languages.

Clause 9: New.