Canada’s federal government says it will not expand the scope of a program that pays an annual bonus to bilingual employees, excluding hundreds of government workers who speak an Indigenous language on the job.
Since the late 1970s, the federal government has paid a bonus of C$800 (US$617) to workers who use English and French, the country’s two official languages. But Canada has more than 60 Indigenous languages, and about 500 federal employees frequently speak an Indigenous language on the job.
A recent proposal called for the bonus to reflect a more diverse workforce, but the suggestion has been shot down by the Treasury Board, which in a statement said it “has no plans to broaden the scope of the bilingualism bonus to include Indigenous languages”.
Lori Idlout, a lawmaker from the territory of Nunavut, told the Canadian Press she was very disappointed by the decision.
“Canada is founded on Indigenous lands, on First Nations, Métis, Inuit lands and if reconciliation is to be realized, this is one of the ways that it has to happen they need to be given the same value as bilingual English or French federal employees,” said Idlout, who often speaks Inuktitut – the dominant language of the Arctic region, with her constituents.
Other parliamentarians from Idlout’s New Democratic party called an expansion of the bonus to include Indigenous language “an act of reconciliation”.
The largest union representing federal employees has also pushed back against the decision.
“We’ll see where the chips fall at the table,” the Public Service Alliance of Canada tweeted. “A bilingual allowance for Indigenous languages helps build a stronger, more diverse public service and recognizes the unique lived experiences of Indigenous workers.”
Representing 120,000 federal employees covered by the Treasury Board, the union says almost 500 federal employees speak an Indigenous language on the job – but do not receive a financial benefit.
The program, established in 1966 and rolled out nearly a decade later, currently pays C$800 a year to workers who speak both official languages.
The bonus itself remains controversial. Several language commissioners have questioned whether C$800 is enough to encourage an employee to learn and master a new language, especially because the figure has not changed since it was introduced in 1977.
If the bonus had been raised to match inflation, it would be with more than $3,600 today. In March, the Public Service Alliance of Canada called on the federal government to raise the allowance to C$1,500.
In 2017, the clerk of the privy council released a report recommending that the millions used to fund the bilingualism allowance be reallocated into a language training, the latest in a series of government reports that have suggested ending the program.
