OTTAWA \u2014 A federal union is speaking out against cuts to the federal translation bureau and is accusing the Carney government of hypocrisy as Ottawa defends French language standards in trade talks with the U.S.<\/p>\n
The translation bureau is a federal government service under Public Services and Procurement Canada that provides translation and interpretation services to departments and private clients.<\/p>\n
A government document containing highlights of the translation bureau\u2019s business plan for 2025 to 2030 says the bureau plans to drop 339 employees through natural attrition over five years to ensure its financial viability.<\/p>\n
Attrition is the gradual reduction of positions through retirements and resignations.<\/p>\n
The document says the plan reflects \u201can overall drop\u201d in demand for traditional translation services.<\/p>\n
It also says departments are turning to online translation services \u201cvia free internet tools\u201d or are \u201cinvesting on their own to deploy translation tools powered by artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mario Morneau, spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said in an email the plan is to accomplish the reduction through attrition and because it\u2019s based on client demand, the final number could vary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis attrition is expected to occur across a range of occupational groups, including translation, administrative and management positions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The Canadian Association of Professional Employees is condemning the plan and says the decision puts Canada\u2019s official languages at risk.<\/p>\n
The union said more than 90 per cent of translations in the federal government are from English to French and that when the quality of translation declines, it is francophones who feel the impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result is a two-tier system by degrading the language services francophones depend on to access public services and Canada\u2019s democratic institutions in their own language,\u201d said the union.<\/p>\n
After several weeks of intense negotiations, Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended trade talks with the U.S. on Aug. 21 and summoned Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and the rest of the negotiating team back to Canada.<\/p>\n
In a media conference, Carney accused U.S. negotiators of trying to limit Canada\u2019s ability to negotiate other trade deals, restrict its protections for language and culture and reduce tariffs for cars but not trucks.<\/p>\n
Carney cited both the visibility of Canadian content on streaming services and French-language product labelling when he described the collapse of the trade talks. Four days later, a government official, who refused to be quoted on the record, told The Canadian Press that French labels were never part of the conversation.<\/p>\n
LeBlanc then told Radio-Canada that while the U.S. had identified French-language labels as a trade irritant in the past, the issue on the table just before the trade talks ended was online discoverability.<\/p>\n
Those rules, which are currently under development at the CRTC, would ensure Canadian and French-language content is available and visible on online streaming platforms.<\/p>\n
U.S. representatives have maintained they don\u2019t have an issue with French language protections.<\/p>\n
Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MP Yves Perron said in the House of Commons last month that \u201cwe cannot use French as a shield against Donald Trump and then turn around and regard it as an unnecessary expense that needs to be cut.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile being a useful tool, artificial intelligence can never replace human judgment and a nuanced understanding of human language,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not attract the next generation of talent by allowing people\u2019s working conditions to deteriorate. A strong internal capacity within the public service is essential to preserving French.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly Burke, Canada\u2019s official languages commissioner, said in a statement that the government must ensure the substantive equality of Canada\u2019s two official languages in federal services and communications. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis means, among other things, that translation and interpretation services must meet the highest standards of quality in order to respect the language rights of all Canadians,\u201d said Burke.<\/p>\n
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages\u2019 2025-2026 annual report said federal institutions must ensure that their language obligations and their employees\u2019 language rights are respected and taken into account during any budget reduction exercises.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will continue to monitor this situation closely,\u201d said Burke.<\/p>\n
Burke added that while artificial intelligence can be useful for translation and interpretation when deployed properly, a qualified professional needs to be involved to avoid errors.<\/p>\n
Morneau said the translation bureau will adjust its plans if demand for translation services increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bureau remains fully committed to providing quality linguistic services in both official languages, tailored to the needs of our clients, budgetary realities and the expectations of Canadians,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will maintain the in-house capacity required to fulfil the demand for high-quality translations while continuing to draw on the expertise of Canada\u2019s language industry when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
-With files from Anja Karadeglija<\/p>\n
Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 A federal union is speaking out against cuts to the federal translation bureau and is accusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[76,45,49,48,46,75,3717,7607,47,20739,714,66],"class_list":["post-939194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-arts","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-entertainment","tag-labour","tag-media","tag-national","tag-ottawa","tag-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}