As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

Recommendation 1

That the Government of Canada adopt the recommendations in the Commissioner of Official Languages’ report entitled A Matter of Respect and Safety.

Recommendation 2

That the government of Canada adopt an official languages analysis tool similar to the Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) tool, as an official language lens that would guide all government operations to ensure that the Canadian government’s policies respect its legal and constitutional framework on official languages.

Recommendation 3

That the Government of Canada and the provincial and territorial governments recognize the vulnerability of certain demographic groups, including seniors and newcomers, as regards unilingual communications in emergency situations.

Recommendation 4

That the Government of Canada acknowledge that the implementation of language rights has an impact on the health and safety of the population and that it amend the Official Languages Act so that it takes precedence over all laws and regulations aimed at communications. Any future legislation with provisions for emergency situations should acknowledge and mandate the primacy of the Official Languages Act.

Recommendation 5

That the Government of Canada amend the Language Skills Act so that, from now on, the linguistic designation of the position of Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, as well as equivalent positions in all departments, is bilingual at the time of appointment, and that it evaluate the language requirements of other incumbents responsible for providing information to the public.

Recommendation 6

That, in the process of reforming the Official Languages Act (the Act), the Government of Canada ensure that the use of social media and other electronic means of communications by federal institutions is subject to the Act.

Recommendation 7

As regards translation:

a)    That the Treasury Board prohibit the use of translation and interpretation services throughout the federal public service that are not provided by qualified professionals, whether for internal or external communications.

b)   That Public Services and Procurement Canada evaluate the Translation Bureau’s capacity in terms of translation and interpretation services to ensure that federal institutions can always use professional translation and interpretation services for their internal and external communications.

Recommendation 8

That, in the process of reforming the Official Languages Act (the Act), the Act be amended to ensure that all federal institutions have plans for communications with and services to employees and the public in emergency situations.

Recommendation 9

That all departments of the Government of Canada ensure that, during emergency situations, the packaging and labelling of all products comply at all times with the laws and regulations governing bilingual packaging and labelling.

Recommendation 10

That, in the process of reforming the Official Languages Act (the Act), the Act be amended so as to strengthen Part V of the Act in such a way as to ensure that civil servants who work in bilingual regions for language-of-work purposes may, both in non-critical times and in emergency situations:

a)    communicate in the official language of their choice, both orally and in writing, with their managers;

b)   receive oral or written communication from their employer simultaneously in both official languages; and

c)    have access, whenever possible, to interpretation services during in person, virtual or hybrid format meetings.

Recommendation 11

That the Official Languages Act aim to further encourage bilingualism in the public service and that the Treasury Board develop a new training framework for second language learning and revise the language qualification standards for all positions.

Recommendation 12

That the Government of Canada and the governments of the provinces and territories ensure that their bilingual communications and services are coordinated in emergency situations and alerts from the National Public Alerting System are always issued in both official languages.

Recommendation 13

That, in order to allow official language minority community organizations to maintain their capacity to offer services and programming, the Government of Canada set up:

a)    an emergency fund for future emergency situations, with the objective of supporting OLMC organizations during both the emergency situation and the recovery period; and

b)   consider the possibility of establishing other post-COVID-19 pandemic funds in order to ensure their continued vitality.