Job hunting in this city might have some people feeling a little bleu.
That’s not to say looking for work in Ottawa should be more fun and relaxing compared withother Canadian cities, but those pursuing employment in the nation’s capital need to be more conscientious when citing “excellent communication skills” on their resumes.
Whether one aims to haul suitcases to and from the suites of the Chateau Laurier, inspect tickets and lapel tags at the National Gallery, dress wounds at the Ottawa Hospital or count beans at City Hall, one must be able to do it in both French and English – and with capital aplomb.
The reality is that the city of Ottawa, like the country as a whole, “recognizes both official languages as having the same rights, status and privileges,” as set out in the city’s bilingualism policy of 2001.
The city’s job market has grown around this mandate, making it so that most workplaces located downtown and those governed by the municipality require their employees to be fluent in both French and English.
By 2009, the city will enforce a so-called “level three bilingualism” designation for its department heads and managers, meaning 100 per cent of those individuals will have to be 100 per cent bilingual to qualify for internal promotions.
As the nation’s capital, it seems obligatory for the city to adopt the most accessible, pan-Canadian flavour possible. Naturally, that means on-demand bilingual service for residents and visitors.
But this policy has also meant severe disadvantages and disenchantment for unilingual anglophones trying to make their way in Ottawa’s workforce.
Consider the city’s linguistic reality. According to the 2006 census, 360,175 Ottawa-Gatineau residents cited French as their mother tongue or one of their mother tongues. Those francophones account for 32 per cent of the area’s population, which totals about 1,117,120 people. Of those French speakers, only about 28 per cent are unilingual French.
Conversely, almost 90 per cent of the capital region’s total residents speak English as either a first or second language, and 45 per cent of the population speaks only English.
This is the reality: there are clearly more English speakers than French, and those who speak French are likely to speak English too. Only about nine per cent of the area’s total residents speaks French and only French.
While there may be a need to serve these individuals in French, the truth is most residents can and do function in English.
Be that as it may, the city’s bilingualism policy continues to deprive residents who speak only English the chance to land jobs with the city and at many of the city’s institutions.
In 2006, the lobby group Canadians for Language Fairness sued the city of Ottawa, calling the bylaw “a form of social engineering” designed to favour the French-speaking population and further charging that Ottawa’s bilingualism policy does not accurately reflect the demographics of the city.
The federal government agreed to help bolster bilingualism in Ottawa in 2002, designating a five-year transition period to help fund translation and language training for the city’s workers.
During that period of “bilingualization,” dual-language street signs went up around the city and residents elected a new mayor whose spoken French happens to be deplorable.
One might take comfort in this: to meet the city’s bilingualism requirements for jobs, one doesn’t necessarily have to speak eloquent French.
However, one might also find disillusionment in knowing that articulate French, not just the basics, is crucial if one hopes to don an usher’s blazer and escort an elderly National Arts Centre patron to his or her seat.