Parliamentary Committee Notes: Official Languages
Official Languages
Proposed Response:
- The RCMP is comprised of three categories of employees: Regular Members, Public Service Employees and Civilian Members. Across the RCMP, 22% of all employees are bilingual. While 34% of the civilian members, and 27% of Public Service Employees are bilingual, only 19.5% of Regular Members are bilingual.
- Of employees who occupy bilingual positions, 87.5% of all employees meet or exceed the requirements of their position. However, compliance is highest among civilian members at 95%, followed by Public Service Employees at 91%, and lastly Regular Members at 82% meeting their requirements.
- The RCMP also has a much higher percentage rate of employees who identify English as their first official language when compared to other government departments. The Treasury Board Secretariat reports that, in 2021, 69.2% of employees across government identified English as their first official language, whereas that percentage is approximately 82% among RCMP employees.
- The RCMP, like other police organizations and many other sectors, is facing substantial recruitment challenges. The RCMP has taken targeted and proactive measures to recruit new police officers from both official language communities, and to increase employee participation in second language training
Background:
The Commissioner of the RCMP appeared at LANG Committee on October 30, 2023 to discuss the reported lack of bilingualism in the senior ranks at the RCMP. In most cases, executives and officers meet the linguistic profiles of their positions, however there are some senior ranking officials at the RCMP who do not fully meet their bilingual requirements.
The Commissioner spoke to the high compliance rates of Public Service Employees at the EX-01 to EX-05 levels who met their requirements in 98% of bilingual positions (131 of 134). The Commissioner also acknowledged the challenges in compliance among Regular Members at the Inspector level and above, where only 59% of employee in bilingual positions met their requirements (100 of 169).
The RCMP recognizes the importance of senior leadership in creating a bilingual and inclusive workplace culture that is conducive to the use of both Official Languages. The RCMP also has a non-negotiable operational mandate that presents challenges to staff positions with individuals who meet the merit criteria, in a highly specialized environment, whilst ensuring to respect the Official Languages Act (OLA).
Across the RCMP, 87.5% of employees who occupy bilingual positions meet or exceed the language requirements of their position. Compliance is highest among civilian members at 95%, followed by Public Service Employees at 91%, and Regular Members at 82%.
As part of its Vision 150 and Modernization Strategy, the RCMP is committed to creating a diverse and professional workforce, fostering the development of its employees throughout their careers. This includes the commitment to the use of official languages and ensuring equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use.
Language rights set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the OLA are ways to sustain linguistic duality. As a federal institution, the RCMP is subject to the OLA and must fulfill its obligations with respect to: Communications with and Services to the Public (Part IV), Language of Work (Part V), Participation of English-Speaking and French-Speaking Canadians (Part VI), Advancement of English and French {Part VII), and Staffing (sec. 91)..
The Official Languages Strategy developed by the RCMP is aligned with the RCMP’s corporate strategies, priorities and core values, and focuses on improving the organization’s compliance with the OLA. The RCMP Official Languages Strategy is centered around four priority areas:
- Strengthening Leadership in Official Languages;
- Promoting Legislative Compliance to the OLA;
- Creating a Culture of Inclusion; and,
- Ensuring Accountability, Transparency and Measuring Progress
With respect to Strengthening Leadership in Official Languages, the measures established include:
An RCMP-wide review to identify compliance gaps and barriers to be conducted, in partnership with internal stakeholders when relevant; Official languages is a formal and recurring agenda item among senior management; Second language training is provided to support career progression of future leaders; Linguistic training is also offered to senior leaders; Official languages working group members act as change agents.
The RCMP Second Language Training Plan also contains the strategic outcome of ensuring future leaders identified within the organization will be prioritized for the development of second language competencies earlier in their career to facilitate future staffing actions and to ensure strengthening leadership in official languages.
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