Who We Are

Official Languages Support Programs

Our Goal

• To promote French and English in Canadian society.
• To encourage the development of Francophone and Anglophone communities in minority situations.

Our Areas of Involvement

Co-operation with other governments

Our partnership with the provinces and territories aims to enable official-language minority communities:

• to have access to education in their mother tongue;
• to manage their schools;
• to receive provincial and territorial services in their own language;

and to enable all young Canadians:

• to learn French or English as a second language.

Community Development

Our support enables official-language minority communities:

• to establish and maintain organizations that will allow them to fully contribute to the economic, cultural and social aspects of Canadian life;
• to benefit fully from federal programs in all regions of the country through the co-ordination role that we undertake with other federal institutions.

Interdepartmental Coordination

We ensure a coordinated approach among federal institutions (FIs) to further the development of official-language minority communities(OLMCs) and to promote English and French in Canada. We fulfill our mandate in the following ways:

• Supporting federal institutions in the implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act;
• Facilitating networking among federal institutions and promoting best practices;
• Developing training tools for federal institutions;
• Tabling in Parliament the Official Languages Annual Report (Volume 2 - Achievements of designated federal institutions);
• Coordination with central agencies;
• Creating and maintaining a network of resource persons for regional interdepartmental coordination.

Promotion

The bilingual character of our country is a fundamental part of our national identity:

• we emphasize its advantages and rewards both in Canada and abroad;
• we help voluntary organizations to reflect the bilingual character of our society in their own activities;
• we encourage activities that foster mutual understanding between Anglophones and Francophones.