Departing language watchdog urges MLAs to explode myths that stoke prejudice

New Brunswick's official languages commissioner used her final appearance before a committee of the legislature Wednesday to urge elected politicians to debunk myths that fuel anti-bilingualism sentiment.

Katherine d'Entremont told Liberal, Progressive Conservative and Green MLAs that her five annual reports have furnished them with plenty of information they can use to "brag" about the benefits of the province's Official Languages Act.

"I encourage you to not be shy, to brag about what we have in New Brunswick … to continue to debunk the myths that are out there," she said.

"It's incumbent on each of you in your conversations with citizens to set the record straight."

Her comments came a month before she retires after five years on the job and two months before the members of the committee hit the campaign trail for the Sept. 24 election.

D'Entremont's five years as commissioner, a politically independent watchdog position, has been marked by controversy.

She was blamed for the firing of a unilingual commissionaire from a government office building, even though her powers are limited to investigating complaints and making recommendations to government.

The difficulty of finding bilingual ambulance paramedics and the province's poor fiscal standing has also prompted complaints about the cost of bilingualism.

But d'Entremont told MLAs on Wednesday that they should also look to studies by her office showing the economic benefits of the law.

She pointed to one study that found companies coming to New Brunswick for the bilingual workforce have created two unilingual English positions for every bilingual job.

"I think one of the most frustrating things is when I hear debates happening among elected officials, or other folks, or the media, where the facts are just plain wrong," she said.

"I don't think there's anything that has bothered me more in the past five years than witnessing misinformation and disinformation."

D'Entremont announced this spring she'll retire from the commissioner's position in July, five years into her seven-year term.

The government has appointed former commissioner Michel Carrier as interim commissioner until the legislature can approve a permanent replacement after the Sept. 24 election.

Her final annual report urges the provincial government to beef up its own handling of bilingualism with a new office or secretariat led by a senior civil servant.

That would address the fact the province is still not making enough effort to fully serve the public in both English and French, the report says.

She says part of the problem is "the lack of an adequate structure and adequate resources to support the Premier," who, she points out, has legal responsibility to enforce the Official Languages Act.

Her report says the government has fallen short on developing a comprehensive plan to meet its bilingualism obligations. A 2013 update of the language law requires such a plan.

Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal government has a plan, she writes, but it "has not resulted in renewed progress toward the equality of both languages and both communities."

"The Premier must therefore have an effective team: a team with sufficient resources, in order to adequately fulfil this role."

She notes that the percentage of New Brunswickers using French as their first language was 31.9 per cent in 2016, down from 33.8 in 1971. That's evidence of a "slow decline" of the language and shows the need for a more robust effort, she concludes.

The report says offices, secretariats, and deputy minister posts have been created for other areas such as "corporate communications," "special initiatives" and "women's equality."

At the same time, d'Entremont says, civil servants responsible for official languages are not in senior roles and are spread around three departments — an indicator the issue isn't seen as a priority.

Government departments "are often wanting to implement initiatives or improve their service delivery but they're waiting for direction from central government, but that direction is not forthcoming," she told the MLAs during her presentation.

Cabinet minister Brian Kenny, the government's spokesperson on official languages said Wednesday he had not had time to look at the report's recommendations yet.

The commissioner also criticizes former Liberal cabinet minister Donald Arseneault for rejecting her 2015 recommendation that the government require all senior civil servants be bilingual.

She wrote at the time that some leaders of francophone organizations meeting with senior officials in Fredericton had to conduct the meetings in English. 

Arseneault quickly rejected the idea, which earned him a rebuke in d'Entremont's report.

"If the Minister had contemplated the reverse situation — anglophones not being able to use English to communicate with senior public servants — he would certainly have realized that his position was indefensible," she writes.

The report says d'Entremont's office investigated 79 complaints in 2017-18. There were 64 about lack of service in French and 15 about lack of service in English.

The commissioner's committee appearance wrapped up in less than an hour after both Liberal and PC MLAs opted to not ask her any questions. She told reporters she was surprised at that.

Tory MLAs in particular have raised language issues over the last four years. At least one called for the abolition of d'Entremont's office and others have complained about how bilingualism is applied.

PC Leader Blaine Higgs recently proposed a change to hiring practices for bilingual government employees while acknowledging he didn't know if that would require a change to the Official Languages Act.

PC MLA Brian Keirstead said he didn't ask for d'Entremont's views on the idea because "I don't think that's her mandate."

He pointed out her job is to investigate and make recommendations, not comment on policies that don't yet exist.

"There'd be specifically nothing to investigate." 

D'Entremont said during a news conference she would not comment on Higgs's idea but added that the law is clear that bilingual service is required everywhere in the province.

Green Party Leader David Coon accused both the Liberals and PCs of passing on questions to avoid more language controversies so close to the election.

"I think my colleagues were fearful of asking questions because they're concerned about the election year and somehow if they ask questions that seem to be interested in the report, somehow that would reflect poorly on them at the polls."