CAPE President Emmanuelle Tremblay and TR Vice-President André Picotte appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, earlier today, where they submitted a detailed brief on the Translation Bureau.
CAPE believes that the government must provide the Bureau with the necessary financial and human resources if it is to properly carry out its mandate. The Bureau must also be made responsible for managing translation across the federal public service.
To read the entire brief, please click here.
The following are CAPE’s recommendations to the committee:
1- Make the Translation Bureau the sole government agency responsible for translation services within the federal public service
Making the Translation Bureau responsible for managing translation on behalf of all federal departments and agencies would elevate the quality of translated material produced outside the Bureau, reduce administrative costs associated with awarding contracts for translation services and ensure the preservation of linguistic expertise.
Moreover, entrusting the Bureau with the responsibility of overseeing the management of all of the government’s translation operations would make it possible to eliminate the “phantom translation units” that, as the Bureau is already aware, exist in several departments and agencies, thereby achieving economies of scale.
2- Give the Translation Bureau the financial and human resources it needs to fulfil its mandate
It is important to put an end to the policy of attrition at the Translation Bureau and to start hiring translators, terminologists and interpreters once again. The Translation Bureau must be given the financial resources required to fulfil its mandate to support Canada’s linguistic duality. It must stop bearing the brunt of untenable budget cuts.
In many of its mandate letters to new ministers, the present government has indicated that they must contribute to the protection of the Official Languages Act. However, this is just wishful thinking unless this desire is matched by concrete actions, such as restoring the Translation Bureau’s budget to levels that would allow it to fulfil its mandate.
In addition to opening its doors to new employees once again, the Translation Bureau must implement a program to restore its lost expertise in the areas of scientific, technical and multilingual translation. It must also develop a succession plan that will make it possible for experienced employees to pass on their expertise by helping to train a new crop of employees.
Governments are always faced with budget choices. The previous government made a conscious decision that Canada’s linguistic duality and the right of Canadians to obtain quality services in the language of their choice could be sacrificed on the altar of austerity.
We are asking you to reverse that trend. We are asking you to give the Translation Bureau back its capacity to do the work it was created to do, to make a lasting contribution to Canada’s linguistic duality and to ensure that Canadians are always able to obtain services in the language of their choice. We are also asking you protect public service employees’ right to continue working in the language of their choice.
