The federal government won't extend bilingualism bonuses to employees who speak an Indigenous language

The federal Treasury Board has stated that it does not have any intentions to extend the bonus that is currently given to workers who speak English and French to those who speak an Indigenous language.

Employees who work in positions that are identified as needing language proficiency in both of Canada's official languages—French and English—receive an additional $800 per year as part of the bilingualism bonus.

Among the ideas top civil officials had late last year as they examined methods to resolve language issues expressed by some Indigenous public servants was expanding it to compensate personnel who speak an Indigenous language.

A briefing note released to The Canadian Press in accordance with the federal access to information act gave some specifics about those factors.

In order to establish compensation for those who use an Indigenous language in the course of their employment, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union that represents more than 120,000 federal employees covered by the Treasury Board, has proposed creating an Indigenous language allowance.

As stated by the union's national President Chris Aylward, there are about 500 government employees who use an Indigenous language at work.

In an interview, he declared, "It's a discriminatory practice." "How can this government defend that when their coworkers are paid an allowance to speak a second language and these employees are not”?

"We believe that this is a really forward-thinking and concrete method for the government to acknowledge the significance of Indigenous languages in Canada. Win-win situation."

Aylward stated that the union, which has been negotiating a new contract with the government for more than a year, is also asking to enhance the bilingualism bonus to $1,500, up from the current $800, and wants to see the same compensation extended to speakers of Indigenous languages.

"We definitely believe that Indigenous workers should be recognized for the language that they speak”.

As per Alain Belle-Isle, a spokesman for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the bilingualism bonus is intended to support the government's commitment to allowing public servants to work in the language of their choice, a requirement of federal institutions under the nation's official languages law.

"Treasury Board has no plans to broaden the scope of the bilingualism bonus to include Indigenous languages," Belle-Isle said in a statement.

A spokesman for Mona Fortier, the minister in charge of the Treasury Board, issued a follow-up statement in which they reaffirmed their commitment to eradicating barriers to employment and career advancement and to fostering an inclusive public service in collaboration with partners.

More than 40% of government occupations require dual language fluency, according to Scott Bardsley, who added that "we will never change the core premise of bilingualism in the public service."

He also cited a rise in the percentage of Indigenous people in government executive positions, which was reported to be 4.4% in 2020–21, up from 3.7% in 2015–16.