City drops the ball on French services: report

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/11/2024 (666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City of Winnipeg departments are struggling to offer French services to bilingual residents.

A report, which is to be discussed by the executive policy committee next week, says a lack of resources has delayed improvements to government services in French, and the francophone community has limited access to services in both official languages.

Nearly 10 per cent of Winnipeg’s population can speak French, as per the report.

Jean-Michel Beaudry, executive director of Societe de la francophonie manitobaine, says the report shows a lot of false starts in delivering services.

“Often there seems to be political will, or some will from council to get things going, but then either the resources aren’t there, or there’s simply a lack of follow-through that I’m not really able to understand,” Beaudry said.

In 1994, council passed a bylaw concerning the provision of services in both English and French. Signage and community services such as libraries and recreation centres are mandated to provide bilingual services.

In 2020, council adopted a French language services review strategy and tasked the public service with providing French language services upon request, developing a five-year improvement plan, and reviewing and updating the bylaw.

Beaudry said a strategy that includes incremental goals and is subject to annual progress reports is needed.

“A lot of problems (in the report) are well-defined, but having a strategy to address them is still something that has to be done,” he said, adding complaints about the lack of service must be addressed.

A report delivered in 2021 shows the city failed, in many instances, to meet requirements to provide services in a resident’s preferred language in a timely manner.

According to this latest report, in 2022 the French language services division received 31 informal complaints related to the lack of French services, including by 311 and water and waste call centres, in relation to delegations trying to interact with elected officials and in terms of Transit Plus services.

The city recently hired a co-ordinator to address the long-standing concerns, but Coun. Matt Allard, who represents St. Boniface, admits more can be done to recruit and retain more bilingual employees.

The city had 541 bilingual employees in designated and non-designated positions as of Dec. 31, 2022. The city lists 10,452 employees in its 2017 human resources data set.

“It’s reasonable to expect that every department would have a manner in which they can respond to a French inquiry and or provide service in French,” Allard said.

Many residents who would have chosen to use city services in French have become used to doing so in English, but the option should always be available, Allard said.

Allard said he would like every city department to offer French service so there are no complaints. He believes the co-ordinator will address the issue.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca