Since the end of June, federal supervisors who want to occupy a position in regions designated as being bilingual must demonstrate a better level of bilingualism. Concretely, the federal government has increased the threshold for success in second language tests.
This is a measure claimed by the official language commissioner, Raymond Théberge, in order to ensure that federal employees can be supervised in the official language of their choice. But how is this enhancement anticipated, on the ground?
“We can see it with a good eye,” comments Sébastien Paquette, regional executive vice-president for the Alliance of the Canada Public Service. He nevertheless consents that these new requirements could create a barrier for French -speaking unilingual employees who want to obtain a management position. “But to be able to be taken care of in French, it removes a mental charge,” he explains in an interview with Duty.
Do you have the level of a federal supervisor?
In federal bureaucratic jargon, minimum linguistic ratings for federal supervisors have increased from BBB to CBC. These ratings designate the results to tests evaluating the ability of employees to understand (written understanding), writing (written expression) and speaking (oral competence) in their second official language. Each letter corresponds to a level: A for beginners, B for intermediary, C for advanced. A BBB rating means an intermediate level in the three skills, while CBC requires an advanced level of language understanding.
This means that a new manager must now be able to communicate commonly in both official languages, at least orally, if he oversees employees in a bilingual designated region.
Other changes
Another novelty: all civil servants in the bilingual designated regions can now be supervised in the official language of their choice, even if their own position is unilingual (essential English or essential French). Before this change, this right depended on the linguistic designation of the post.
If he was delighted with these two new regulations, the Commissioner for Official Languages still remains cautious. He noted that the “acquired law” clause, which allows supervisors who do not have the minimum coast of keeping their post, if they had it before the reform, could be problematic. “I remain concerned about the fate that could be reserved for supervised staff by holders of unilingual posts or by those who do not meet the CBC linguistic requirements,” he wrote.
The commissioner recommends that the government set up a surveillance mechanism by September 2026, in order to ensure that these rights are really respected on the ground. He recalls that “many officials whose linguistic rights are not respected still hesitate to file a complaint, for fear of harming their relationships at work”.
As these lines were written, the secretariat of the Treasury Board, which the federal officials note, had not followed up on the requests of the Duty.
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