Nouvelles

Gleaner
p.C9, mercredi, 19 novembre 2008

In our view: Being bilingual sounds good, but are we up for making it come true?
Éditorial

With official language commissioner Michel Carrier's annual report on Tuesday came renewed calls for the province to live up to its commitment and responsibilities if it truly expects to be called a bilingual province.

In fact, "lip service" is how the five-year commissioner terms government attention to correcting various deficiencies his office has observed.

One needs to read no further than the official language commissioner's opening remarks to understand progress to the stated goal is slow at best, and perhaps without political will or available funding to accomplish.

It's more than just something to conjure some pride when we suggest we're an officially bilingual province.

With that distinction comes many responsibilities. Quite frankly, we probably gain a fuller understanding of what equality among two languages means, every single year. Solutions are difficult and have a cost in both time and money.

Slowly, we've increased the perception of bilingual identity to our culture. But the realities of our practices are a far cry from the realities of being a completely bilingual society.

Perhaps we've hit a critical point in the discussion of our bilingual identity.

The commissioner has renewed his call for creation of strategic plans for all government departments to ensure legislated expectations are met.

"There has been no real response to my recommendation that strategic plans must be developed an implemented in all provincial institutions. At best, institutions have paid lip service to the idea," wrote Carrier.

Ouch.

So, it's really up to the province to determine how bilingual it wants to be. It's up to the province to live up to its responsibilities under the Official Languages Act and the Act Recognizing the Equality of Two Official Linguistic Communities in New Brunswick.

To simply ignore the commissioner once again is akin to suggesting as a government you do not agree with the terms of the act recognizing two official linguistic communities in New Brunswick and would rather ignore the responsibility then repeal, or change the act. We don't really think that's the provincial government's intent, however, the observations of the language commissioner suggests major issues.

Interestingly, Carrier's mandate as the province's first commissioner of official languages ended in January of this year. His mandate was promptly and unanimously renewed by the legislature. Not a bad gig for someone who year after year complains without mincing words, about the province's performance. But perhaps that also speaks to the commissioner's work as non-binding, and therefore placing very little political pressure on the province to comply.

To be fair, small gains are made in the civil service every year. And the commissioner cites and applauds progress in education and health.

When the province's language commissioner says the province pays simply lip service to its responsibility, it's never a good thing.

Recognize the reality and create a plan to deal with it. Or, change the expectation.

We can pursue a goal with hope. However, we must be grounded in reality.