Bill C-13: The Official Languages Act gets a revamp

On May 15, 2023, the House of Commons passed Bill C-13, An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada’s Official Languages, which amends various federal laws, including the Official Languages Act, and creates new rights for French-speaking communities across the country. This important legislation modernizes the Official Languages Act, which last underwent major reform more than 30 years ago, and introduces the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act.

During the last election campaign, all parties represented in the House of Commons pledged to modernize the Official Languages Act, but dissent within the government cast doubt on the outcome of the vote. Against all odds, Bill C-13 passed with a near-majority (300 votes in favour, 1 vote against). Strong pressure, including from the Quebec government, pushed the Senate to adopt the Bill before the parliamentary session adjourned. Bill C-13 was thus adopted by the Senate without amendment on June 15, 2023. It received royal assent on June 20, 2023.

Official Languages Act

The purpose of the Official Languages Act is to ensure respect for English and French as the official languages of Canada, to support and encourage their development in linguistic minority communities and generally to promote their equal status and use in Canadian society. The Act applies to federal institutions, including Parliament, the federal courts, federal departments, Crown corporations and various other organizations, and requires that these institutions be able to provide services to English- and French-speaking Canadians in the language of their choice.

The amendments to the Official Languages Act made by Bill C-13 will enable federal institutions to implement certain measures to promote and support the learning of English and French in Canada and to ensure the presence of strong institutions serving English and French linguistic minority communities across the country. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship will also be required to adopt a francophone immigration policy. Among the changes adopted, the federal government will be required to take into account the importance of equal access to justice in both official languages when appointing judges to the superior courts, and will henceforth require judges of the Supreme Court of Canada to be able to understand both English and French without the assistance of an interpreter. The Act will also allow the Commissioner of Official Languages to impose administrative monetary penalties on certain entities for failure to comply with Part IV of the Act, relating to communications with and services to the public.

Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act

Bill C-13 also introduces the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act, which, among other things, provides for rights and duties respecting the use of French as a language of service and a language of work in relation to federally regulated private businesses in Quebec. In March 2023, the Trudeau government reached an agreement with Quebec’s Minister of the French Language under which Ottawa would legislate on the use of French in federally regulated private businesses, rather than applying the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) to these companies. Under Bill C-13, federally regulated private businesses will have the choice of voluntarily applying Bill 101 or being subject to federal law. In practice, however, there is little difference in most of the language of work provisions in the two Acts.

Under the new federal law, employees of a federally regulated private business will have the right to carry out their work and be supervised in French and to receive all company communications and documents in French (job offers, employment contracts, training documents, etc.). It is understood, however, that the company may communicate or provide documentation in English or any other language that is not French, provided that the use of French in all widely distributed communications and documents is at least equivalent to that of the other language. Bill 101, on the other hand, provides that a provincial company may communicate in writing with an employee in a language other than French only if the employee requests it.

Among other measures, the federal law will require businesses subject to it to demonstrate that knowledge of a language other than French is objectively required by the nature of the work to be performed. Businesses will also have to set up a committee to assist senior management in promoting French and its use within the company. It is worth noting that the federal law makes this committee mandatory regardless of the size of the company, while Bill 101 makes the committee mandatory only for companies with 100 or more employees, unless ordered by the Office québécois de la langue française.

Finally, an important difference lies in the fact that, unlike Bill 101, the federal law grants an acquired right to employees who do not have sufficient knowledge of French at the time the law comes into force and protects them from any unfavourable treatment.

Some of the rights and obligations set out in the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act will also apply at a later date in “regions with a strong francophone presence,” a concept that will eventually be defined by regulation.

Conclusion

The passage of Bill C-13 is only one part of the reform of Canada’s official languages regime. It is highly likely that the government will begin the process of making regulations to implement certain key measures, including a regulation to govern the new regime for federally regulated private businesses and another to set out the new powers of the Commissioner of Official Languages with respect to administrative monetary penalties.

Finally, though the Senate adopted the Bill without amendments, its Standing Committee on Official Languages did make a few “comments”. Notably, it invites the Minister of Official Languages, the President of the Treasury Board and the Commissioner of Official Languages to closely monitor the effects of Bill C-13, especially on anglophone communities in Quebec, and to report on these effects regularly, without waiting for the review of the Act in 10 years.

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