One in four managers of the Canada Bank does not meet the bilingualism requirements of the institution, including senior vice governor Carolyn Rogers, which is at the height of a seven-year mandate, according to the information obtained by Radio-Canada.
As the main vice governor, Rogers is the most important officer of the Central Bank after Governor Tiff Macklem, who is bilingual.
She was appointed for the position in the summer of 2021, although she did not meet the bilingualism requirements at that time.
Rogers took intensive French courses in the summers of 2022 and 2023, and also receives individual language training, but still does not meet the bank’s requirements in terms of employee administration in their second language.
“With respect to the French level of the main vice governor, he has advanced well and is advancing towards the level of competition required by his functions,” said Bank of the Bank of Canada, Sean Gordon.
Your case is not unique. According to the bank, 87 managers, 23 percent of its 373 managers, have not yet obtained level 5 in French, which is the standard for their positions. Some 50 of them took courses in French the past fall or take this spring.
Gordon said the bank’s managers must “follow a conversation that develops at a natural pace, communicate clearly using complex sentences and be able to express themselves spontaneously.”
Since the creation of the Bank of Canada in 1935, the first official language of all its governors has been English.
The bank said that all its employees “can work in the official language of their choice.” That includes economic specialists who help establish the key interest rate.
“I reject the statement that we encourage French -speaking economists to work and make presentations in English. Presentations to senior management, including the monetary policy review committee, are held in French,” said Paul Badertscher, director of relations with the bank’s media.
The former employee filed an official complaint
When the bank opened the position of the main vice -governor, he specified that the candidates should be able to work in both official languages. However, Rogers confirmed during a meeting with the employees in early 2022 that was not bilingual.
A former Bank employee filed a complaint with the Office of the Official Language Commissioner, invoking the provisions of the Official Language Law that require that the senior directors of federal institutions operate both in French and in English.
Radio-Canada is not identifying the plaintiff because they do not have the permission of their current employer to publicly speak about the matter.
According to the complaint, the former employee said that, although an entry level position requires the domain of English … several members of senior management [are] Unable to function in French, even after races that cover several decades. “
The plaintiff added that the lack of bilingualism in the upper part of the bank’s hierarchy “was detrimental to the right to work in French” for all employees.
The commissioner’s office concluded that the complaint was valid, noting that Rogers is not bilingual enough to communicate effectively with the bank’s employees in French.
Bank says that linguistic policy has “reviewed”
According to the documents obtained by Radio-Canada, the discussions between the Office of the Official Language Commissioner and the Bank of Canada continued until the beginning of this year.
The commissioner’s office urged the Bank to implement “a directive aimed at guaranteeing respect for the linguistic rights of its employees in communications with the senior management of the institution,” but in January it concluded that its recommendation had only “partially implemented.”
In response to Radio-Canadá questions, the bank said it has “reviewed” its internal bilingual policy.
Among the established measures, the bank requires that managers speak in both languages during internal events where there are simultaneous translation services available. The institution said it has also created a board to “monitor the evolution of the second linguistic skills of its employees and managers.”
The bank also said that it evaluates the skills of its senior managers in their second language every three years instead of every five “to reduce the risk of regression and encourage the use of both official languages in the workplace.”
Pierre Fortin, economics professor at L’Evilité du quebec à montréalHe praised the bilingual publications of the Bank of Canada, arguing that they stand out from those of other federal institutions.
“These are the only publications I read without having to resort to the English version to understand the French version,” Fortin said.
The former bank officials said that most of the work is carried out in English and then translates into French.
The lawyer Darius Bossé, who represents the former employee who filed the complaint after the appointment of Rogers, said the bank has a long way to go before complying with the requirements of the Official Language Law.
He urged the government to stop appointing unilingual people in the hope that they quickly learn a second language.
“The government assumes that the mastery of the language can be achieved over time, while people are working, although it is clear that these skills are required from the beginning to supervise and manage employees in both official languages,” Bossé said.
