Development of Official-Language Communities Program

Community Life component

The Community Life component of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program aims to enable the federal government to work with partners to offer official-language minority communities access to services in their own language, as well as the infrastructure necessary to ensure their growth and development.

1. Objectives

2. Sub-components

3. Immediate outcomes

I. Objectives

The objectives of the Community Life component of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program are:

• to foster the implementation of activities and projects that ensure the long-term development of official-language minority communities in key sectors;

• to help provincial and territorial governments and their creations foster the growth of official-language minority communities (Anglophones in Quebec and Francophones outside Quebec) by providing them with, in accordance with the development priorities identified by the communities, services in English in Quebec and in French outside Quebec, as well as the necessary infrastructure to provide these services;

• to help expand and diversify the range of partners working together towards the development of official-language minority communities;

• to help make official-language minority communities more inclusive.

II. Sub-components

This component of the program seeks to encourage the initial growth and maintenance of conditions favourable to the development and expansion of official-language minority communities. To achieve this, five sub-components are proposed:

• Cooperation with the Community Sector: aims to encourage community organizations to become involved by reinforcing their ability to take action to make measurable gains in long-term community development, as well as encouraging innovation and excellence. This sub-component has two funding vehicles : Program – Supporting Action and Project – Supporting Innovation

• Intergovernmental Cooperation on Minority-Language Services: aims to help provincial and territorial governments offer provincial, territorial and municipal services in the language of the official-language minority community, as well as the necessary infrastructure to provide these services.

• Interdepartmental Partnership with the Official-Language Communities: We wish to inform you that the Government of Canada will not be renewing the Interdepartmental Partnership with the Official-Language Communities (IPOLC) which expired on March 31, 2009.

  The IPOLC was launched in 1999 as a temporary initiative aimed at encouraging federal institutions to assume a greater role in carrying out their responsibilities relating to section 41 of the Official Languages Act. It has lived up to its mandate to provide complementary funding, and it was intended to gradually reduce the support provided by Canadian Heritage as direct support from other federal institutions increased. Since the IPOLC has achieved its objectives, the financial support from this program must be reallocated to other Government of Canada commitments.

  The government continues to invest in official languages, specifically through the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013: Acting for the Future.

• Young Canada Works in Both Official Languages and Young Canada Works at Building Careers in English and French: (components of the Youth Employment Strategy): aim to provide young participants with hands-on experience and job skills while encouraging their participation in the development of official-language minority communities. Consult the Departmental web site at www.pch.gc.ca/special/jct-ycw/index-eng.cfm.

• Strategic Funds: aim to assist official-language minority communities to encourage their citizens to participate in local community life in their own language, developing their cultural vitality, and integrating into their local community life through large-scale projects.

III. Immediate outcomes

Stakeholders and projects that receive Department funding must contribute to the achievement of one or more objectives of the Community Life component of the Development of Official-Language Communities Program, as well as to the immediate outcomes of this component.

The immediate outcomes targeted by Community Life are as follows:

• creation, improvement and delivery of activities and services designed for official-language minority community organizations, provincial and territorial governments, municipalities and federal departments and agencies;

• greater ability of all partners to effectively structure the development of official-language minority communities.

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