FREDERICTON — New Brunswick is set to launch an Official Languages Secretariat that will oversee how the government carries out its duties under the province’s Official Languages Act, Premier Blaine Higgs announced Monday. .
FREDERICTON — New Brunswick is set to launch an Official Languages Secretariat that will oversee how the government carries out its duties under the province’s Official Languages Act, Premier Blaine Higgs announced Monday. .
The new office, which will be within the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs, is a response to a review last year of the Languages Act, which established New Brunswick as the only officially bilingual province in the country.
“This secretariat will help us promote the many positive aspects of a province with two official languages and help us build our capacity to provide New Brunswickers and visitors…quality services in English and French,” said Higgs. to journalists.
Last year’s language law review, however, did not recommend a secretariat. Written by Provincial Court Judge Yvette Finn and former Deputy Minister of Education John McLaughlin, the review called for, among other things, the creation of a Department of Official Languages.
Higgs’ announcement on Monday did not directly address any of the recommendations made during last December’s review. Instead, he said it would be the job of the secretariat.
“The role of the secretariat is to understand what is really going on within each department,” he said. “That we respect the levels of linguistic law that we are obliged to respect.”
The Higgs government was accused by Francophone leaders across the province of not being sufficiently committed to bilingualism.
And last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chastised Higgs for appointing Kris Austin — a former leader of the defunct People’s Alliance of New Brunswick, known for his past criticism of bilingualism — to a committee reviewing the official languages of the province. Austin is the province’s Minister of Public Safety.
The government has also come under fire from Dominic Cardy, who resigned as education minister in October and accused Higgs of moving too quickly to reform the French immersion curriculum in schools.
On Monday, Higgs said the language debate had become “a political issue that hasn’t gotten us as far ahead as perhaps we should.”
A prominent Acadian group in the province – the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick – said Higgs’ announcement on Monday was a “monumental farce”.
The group said that while the secretariat is not a bad thing, it said Higgs appeared to insinuate during the press conference that the new office would allow members of the legislature to be released from their duties under language law.
“I don’t know if I should laugh or cry,” said Alexandre Cédric Doucet, president of the Société acadienne, in a press release.
“I am amazed that after more than a year of waiting, Premier Higgs dared to take the mike today without responding to any of the recommendations made in (the review),” Doucet said.
“We deserve better from our government.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on December 12, 2022.
Hina Alam, The Canadian Press
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