Directive on the Use of Official Languages on Web Sites

Definitions and notes for the reader

A

A bilingual message indicates that the information is in only one official language: This message also informs users of a hyperlink to a site where they can access general information about the institution in both official languages.

For example:

C

Clearly informs: A bilingual exit notice is needed to indicate to the user that the hyperlink leads to a site that is not required to be in both official languages.

For example:

Collaborative agreement: A collaborative agreement may be necessary in some situations, such as:

• co-management of a site by an institution subject to the Official Languages Act (OLA) and an entity not subject to it;
• posting of information belonging to an institution subject to the OLA on the site of an entity not subject to it; or
• if the institution subject to the OLA grants financial support for a site of an entity not subject to the OLA without the institution being present on the site.

Institutions subject to the OLA that post information on the sites of entities not subject to the OLA comply with their linguistic obligations regarding communications with and services to the public for such information. This does not mean that the OLA applies to information that entities not subject to the OLA post on their sites, but the institution subject to the OLA ensures it enters into an agreement that takes account of its linguistic obligations and of requirements under other federal legislation or policies, including:

• Privacy Act: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/p-21/text.html
• Communications Policy of the Government of Canada: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/comm/comm_e.asp
• Federal Identity Program Policy (FIP): http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/tb_fip/fip-pcim_e.asp
• Common Look and Feel for the Internet (CLF): http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/index_e.asp

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.

Controlled-access site: A password-protected site to which access is restricted to a limited number of identifiable participants.

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 in Electronic Communications: Hyperlink to the Directive on the Use of Official Languages in Electronic Communications.

Domain name: The highest reference level to a Web site. For example, the domain name for the Canada site is canada.gc.ca. The domain name is also the portion of an e-mail address to the right of the @ sign. The institution's signature appears in both official languages and in the order prescribed in Appendix A of the Federal Identity Program Policy http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/sipubs/tb_fip/fip-pcim2_e.asp#Appendice%20A.

For institutions named in Schedules I, I.1 and II of the Financial Administration Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/F-11/59064.html, please consult the Common Look and Feel Standards and Guidelines for the Internet http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-07-tb_e.asp for all other obligations pertaining to the domain name.

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.

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.

I

Individually identified in an objective manner: The institution offers employees the opportunity to select their preferred official language of work. This can be done by:

• setting up a complete list of the employees who will have access to the site;
• individually contacting employees to ask their preferred official language of work. No attempt should be made to influence this choice, for example, by referring to the number or percentage of employees who have already chosen one language or the other.

Institutional signature: The name of the institution. Consult 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 if your institution is named in Schedules I, I.1, II or III to the Financial Administration Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/F-11/59064.html. The principles in Appendix A also apply to all sectors designated as departments for the purposes of the Act, including those institutions otherwise exempted from using FIP corporate symbols.

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:

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

Metadata: Structured information about Web pages and other information resources used to help identify, describe, locate and use these resources.*

N

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: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/OffLang/puolcsp-pllocpps_e.asp.

Policy on using the Official Languages on Electronic Networks: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/offlang/uoletoc_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:

• English - French:

• French - English:

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

Text equivalents and other non-textual elements: All Government of Canada Web sites and their pages incorporate text equivalents for non-textual elements, such as graphics, images, navigational aids and sound tracks, to ensure that universal accessibility goals are achieved.

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.

W

Web site: A Web site may be one of the following networks:

• Internet: The term that describes the network created when computers around the world communicate with each other. Based on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and with universal availability, the Internet is constantly growing and changing.*
• Intranet: Government access-controlled electronic network operated by one or more Government of Canada institutions accessible only from within the Government of Canada. (e.g., Publiservice, institutional Intranet, regional Intranet.)*
• Extranet: Government access-controlled electronic network that allows access by designated people inside and outside Government of Canada institutions.*

*Source: Chief Information Officer Branch http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/cio-dpi/index_e.asp

Welcome page are in the official language of the site: For a Government of Canada bilingual Web site, entering a URL (such as www.canada.gc.ca) will take users to a welcome page with a bilingual greeting and choice of language. In the case of a unilingual site, there will be no choice of language, and the greeting will be only in the language of the site.

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