Directive on the Use of Official Languages in Electronic Communications

Definitions and notes for the reader

A

B

C

Central and common services agencies: Agencies that are obliged to respect official languages use by personnel in the institutions over which they have authority or which they serve. These institutions include the Privy Council Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, Department of Finance, Public Service Commission, Department of Justice, Canada School of Public Service, Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada and Public Works and Government Services Canada.

Conditions: For information to be posted in only one official language as a courtesy, the following three conditions must be met:

• the information comes from an institution not subject to the Official Languages Act (OLA) and is not produced on behalf of an institution subject to the OLA. The institution subject to the OLA ensures that a message clearly indicates that this information does not come from it. This could include, for example, information from other levels of government;
• it is not information given to employees of an institution subject to the OLA that constitutes a regularly and widely used work instrument or personal and central services;
• the information is not related to the responsibilities of the institution regarding communications with and services to the public or employees.

Consequences: Official Languages Policy Framework
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/OffLang/olpf-cplo_e.asp.

Contract or agreement: When an office or facility of an institution subject to Part IV of the Official Languages Act entrusts a third party with delivery of its services to or communications with the public, it ensures that the third party complies with the linguistic obligations of the office or facility through a contract or other legal instrument. Contracts or agreements with third parties should not be confused with transfer payments (grants and contributions). For information related to transfer payments, please see http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/dcgpubs/TBM_133/ggcotp-gscapt_e.asp. 

D

Deputy heads: This term is equivalent to "deputy minister", "chief executive officer" or some other title denoting this level of responsibility.

Diacritics: A sign, e.g. an accent, diaeresis, cedilla, used to indicate different sounds or values of a letter.*

* Source: The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, edited by Katherine Barber.
Copyright © 2004 Oxford University Press. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.

Directive on the Use of Official Languages on Web Sites:  Directive on the Use of Official Languages on Web Sites.

E

Effective use: Actual, routine use of either official language in a work environment where employees can work in the official language of their choice.

Electronic communications: Communications carried out by various means of written and verbal electronic communication, on-line (real-time) or off-line (delayed), such as electronic bulletin boards, e-mail, discussion forums, chat rooms and voice mail.

• Electronic bulletin board

• E-mail

• Discussion forum

• Chat room

• Voice mail

Encoding schemes: The representation of the information circulating in the network requires use of a particular code. Among other things, the scheme used must allow for the representation of characters specific to each of the two official languages.

F

G

H

I

Individual responsibilities:

For communications between employees in different regions, the following principles apply:

• When an employee in a bilingual region or an employee of a central and common services agency communicates with an employee in a unilingual English region, communication is in English.
• When an employee in a bilingual region or an employee of a central and common services agency communicates with an employee in a unilingual French region, communication is in French.
• When an employee in a bilingual region communicates with another employee in a bilingual region, communication is in French or English, at their choice.
• When an employee of a central and common services agency communicates with an employee in a bilingual region, communication is in the language of choice of the employee in the bilingual region.
• When an employee in a unilingual French region communicates with an employee in a unilingual English region, unilingual French region or bilingual region, communication is in French, according to the principle that the person who receives the message is responsible for understanding it.
• When an employee in a unilingual English region communicates with an employee in a unilingual French region, unilingual English region or bilingual region, communication is in English, according to the principle that the person who receives the message is responsible for understanding it.

Intended exclusively:

For communications with and services to the public: the information is intended exclusively for the public served by the unilingual office or facility. If such is not the case, please note that:

• for communications with and services to the public:

• for its Web site, the office or facility chooses one of the following options:

For language of work: the information is intended exclusively for employees in one or more unilingual regions for language-of-work purposes where the language of work is the same. If such is not the case, please note that:

• for a Web site, the institution chooses one of the following options:

• for electronic communications:

J

K

L

List of related policy instruments:

• Common Look and Feel Standards and Guidelines for the Internet (Part 7 - Official Languages) http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-07-tb_e.asp - for institutions named in Schedules I, I.1 and II to the Financial Administration Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/F-11/59064.html.
• Federal Identity Program Policy (FIP)- Appendix A http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/tb_fip/fip-pcim2_e.asp#Appendice%20A - Official Languages - for institutions named in Schedules I, I.1, II and III to the Financial Administration Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/F-11/59064.html.
• Policy on Alternative Service Delivery - Annex C http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/opepubs/TB_B4/asd-dmps1_e.asp#_Toc921243 - Official Languages - Guiding Principles - for institutions subject to Schedules I, I.1 and II to the Financial Administration Act. Other institutions subject to the Official Languages Act must respect the spirit of the principles set out in Annex C.
• Communications Policy of the Government of Canada http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/comm/comm_e.asp - for institutions named in Schedules I, I.1 and II to the Financial Administration Act.
• Contracting Policy - Appendix F http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/dcgpubs/Contracting/contractingpol_f_e.asp - for all departments and agencies, including departmental corporations and sectors designated as departments for the purposes of the Financial Administration Act.

M

N

Note:For example, the note could state "La version française suit le texte anglais" if the English version comes first, or "English version follows the French text" if the French version comes first.

Notice: The notice appears in both official languages. The following is an example of a notice used when information is provided in one official language as a courtesy:

O

Office or facility designated bilingual: An office or facility is designated bilingual if it meets criteria:

• set out in the Official Languages Act (OLA) such as:

OR

An office or facility may take various forms, such as:

• a post office;
• a Canadian border port of entry;
• an information desk;
• a toll-free long-distance telephone service; or
• a train, ferry or aircraft that offers services on a route, as set out in the Regulations.

A list of offices and facilities designated bilingual is available in Burolis at the following address: /burolis/home-accueil_e.asp. In addition to providing contact information for each office or facility of institutions subject to the OLA, Burolis provides the rationale for the obligation to provide services in both official languages (see "Provision" in the "More Info" section). The codes refer to the sections of the OLA or the Regulations.

Official Languages Act: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/O-3.01/index.html

Other languages: The Official Language Act states:

83. (1) "Nothing in this Act abrogates or derogates from any legal or customary right acquired or enjoyed either before or after the coming into force of this Act with respect to any language that is not English or French."

83. (2) "Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted in a manner that is inconsistent with the preservation and enhancement of languages other than English or French."

P

Person responsible: http://www.hrma-agrh.gc.ca/ollo/common/Listinstitution_e.asp

Policy on Language of Work: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/OffLang/plw-plt1_e.asp

Policy on the Use of Official Languages for Communications with and Services to the Public:  Policy on the Use of Official Languages for Communications with and Services to the Public.

Policy on using the Official Languages on Electronic Networks: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/OffLang/duolec-dlloce_e.asp.

Prescribed order: The order of official languages conforms with the principles in Appendix A of the Federal Identity Program Policy (FIP) http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/tb_fip/fip-pcim2_e.asp#Appendice%20A.

For example, these principles apply to the order of the official languages for the institutional signature, domain name, signature block and any written or verbal message:

Public: Any person, group of persons (professional associations or others) or organization or company (other than a Crown corporation) in Canada or abroad, any representative of another level of government communicating with or receiving a service from an institution, excluding officers and employees of institutions subject to the Official Languages Act when carrying out their duties.

Q

R

Regions designated as bilingual for language-of-work purposes: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/OffLang/CHAP5_1_e.asp.

Regularly and widely used work instruments: For example, the following work tools or instruments are available in both official languages in regions designated as bilingual for language-of-work purposes:

• manuals and handbooks of policies, procedures and directives;
• handbooks and documentation needed to deliver services to the public or to employees; and
• lexicons and official institutional publications that employees consult and other similar tools that they use in performing their duties.

Note that this list is not exhaustive. The institution is responsible for deciding on a case-by-case basis whether work instruments meet the definition of "regularly and widely used." This obligation applies no matter what format is used to make the work instruments available to employees (paper, electronic, etc.).

With regard to computer systems, those provided to employees as information sources or work tools must allow navigation and access to information in either official language; the information must also be available in the official language of the user's choice. As with work instruments, the institution is responsible for deciding on a case-by-case basis whether computer systems meet the definition of "regularly and widely used."

• This requirement covers software applications, such as an office automation suite (word processor, electronic document management, spreadsheet, e-mail, etc.) made available to help employees perform their duties.
• In general, this does not include specialized software such as that used by system managers and support technicians to install, configure, maintain and manage the underlying software and hardware infrastructure that makes the institution's software suite available to employees.
• Regularly and widely used information technology systems, including software packages, acquired or produced by or on behalf of institutions after January 1, 1991, are available in both official languages.

S

Special circumstances: Circumstances in which the Official Languages Act allows the use of only one official language.

T

Third party: Under section 25 of the Official Languages Act, "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 [...] to be provided in either official language." Contracts or agreements with third parties should not be confused with transfer payments (grants and contributions). For information related to transfer payments, please see http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/dcgpubs/TBM_133/ggcotp-gscapt_e.asp.

U

Unilingual office or facility: An office or facility that is not required to communicate with or provide all of its services to the public in both official languages under the Official Languages Act or the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations. However, the unilingual office or facility has linguistic obligations it must respect, as set out in the section "Obligations of an institution and its offices or facilities" of the Policy on the Use of Official Languages for Communications with and Services to the Public.

Unilingual regions with different languages of work: For example, Vancouver and Québec City are located in unilingual regions for language-of-work purposes with different languages of work, English for Vancouver and French for Québec City.

V

W

Without changing the content: For example, rewriting, abridging or translating in whole or in part the material, or adding text or illustrations to it, changes the content. Electronic treatment for the purpose of posting the material is not considered to be a change of the content.

X

Y

Z