The Issue That Dares Not Be Named

It cost $55 per capita - every man, woman and child in Canada - annually to pay for official bilingualism in 2006, the last year figures were available. The total cost to administer and provide French-language services in Canada in that year came to $1.8-billion. Funding that could have gone somewhere else far more practical, from increased health spending to child day care, or social housing, for example.

There are about four million unilingual francophones living in Canada. English is, of course, a universal language and it most certainly represents the majority language in Canada. But of course, governments have an obligation under the Official Languages Act to provide services in the language of choice - in all provinces of Confederation, where numbers warrant. At the present time, one in five Canadians is foreign born.

There are German, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking demographics that rival those of French speakers. There are no general government services available to those large groups of language users. Does it make sense to have French-language services available in Vancouver when 38% of residents report Chinese as their mother tongue? Most unilingual francophones live in Quebec.

The one-in-five foreign-born Canadians who live in Canada and who speak other languages as their first tongue, also learn to speak English in the greater community, of necessity. Oddly enough - or not as the case may be, given official francophone proclivities - the province of Quebec provides services only in French. Most sites are French-only; the province's workplace health and safety board recently deleted its "Press 9 for English" option on its automated telephone answering service.

Federal government offices must offer French and English where the linguistic minority represents at least a 5% presence of the larger population, under the Official Languages Act. This is a costly enterprise, and it makes no practical sense whatever, since most French-speakers can also speak English, but prefer they be deferred to in French because it is their 'right'. After decades of intensive language training, where French immersion schools turn out children versed in French, only 15% of the population is bilingual.

The strictures imposed on government employees in bilingualism requirements, and the imposition on senior bureaucrats to speak fluent French in managerial positions to reflect positively on the "sacred cow" of bilingualism is nonsensical. Language training is an expensive enterprise, the tab picked up through taxes. Translation services required across the country to ensure that all government issued documents are available in both languages makes no good sense whatever.

At a time of government cut-backs, federal departmental budgets are already strained, and yet the costs of administering the departmental language requirements are increasing at an exponential rate. $2.1-million in the latest fiscal year. The broadening of bilingual requirements in greater numbers of federal positions largely benefits French-speakers, rarely English-speakers, creating an atmosphere of demoralized resentment.

Graham Fraser, the official Languages Commissioner of Canada, passionately committed to bilingualism in Canada, admits that federal dollars have been wasted or misspent on official bilingualism. Yet he insists that whatever it costs, it is "not an unreasonable price to pay for what is basically the cost of equality". What he means is the cost of placating the French sensibility.

But that is unattainable, and the reality is whatever manner in which Quebec is encouraged to advance its 'national' interests in the interests of satisfying its demands, simply triggers additional demands. It's a no-win situation for Canada, and a win-win situation for Quebec. This intemperate and foolishly conciliatory play list has long since 1968 been sounding very sour notes.