N.B. begins year-long review of official languages law
CBC
New Brunswick has begun a year-long review of legislation meant to guarantee government services are available in both official languages.
A legislative committee on official languages, tasked with reviewing the province's Official Languages Act, met Wednesday to begin that work.
The law aims to uphold the availability of government services in both English and French in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially bilingual province.
But that's become increasingly difficult to achieve in the province's overburdened health and long-term care systems, according to John McLaughlin, a retired deputy minister of the Department of Education.
He conducted the last review of the act in 2021, along with provincial court Judge Yvette Finn, and they both appeared at the standing committee meeting in Fredericton Wednesday.
"The nursing home situation is very precarious right now. We just look at the number of people who are waiting for nursing home placements, who are in beds in hospitals because there aren't enough," McLaughlin said.
"This is a significant challenge for the province, and for you folks to consider, is how can we try to balance those things — to give to our seniors the dignity of being able to live and breathe in their mother tongue, while also having a place where they can be well cared for?"
In their 2021 report, McLaughlin and Finn issued a series of recommendations, which dealt with strengthening governance and certain linguistic obligations in areas such as health and long-term care.
But those have yet to be implemented in full.
Finn said that the 2021 recommendations are still relevant, and noted some still require a lot of work.
“Municipalities, nursing care homes … we’re really just skimming the surface, we have to go more in depth, especially figuring out how to implement it,” she said.
Last month, Premier Susan Holt said in a statement that her government would act on the recommendations, but that they would first be reviewed by the committee.
The province said last month that the Department of Social Development would consult with the long-term care sector on a path forward.
“The government will establish a working group … to draft a progressive and sustainable implementation plan to improve the capacity of nursing homes to provide equal quality of service in both official languages,” a news release said.
Hundreds of thousands of used tires are piling up across Ontario as some companies responsible for tire recycling have stopped processing tires amid reduced provincial recycling regulations for tire producers, industry experts say.
People in Guelph facing homelessness will soon have a new place to go during the day.
Islanders are reminded to plan their rides ahead of holiday festivities if they plan on drinking alcohol or using cannabis.
Even before Gwen Healey Akearok began her new role as Nunavut’s Minister of Family Services, she was tuning into the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) hearings on the state of the Family Services department.
The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force.
Holiday traditions are front and centre for many people at this time of year. But one Uxbridge family's Christmas tradition goes above and beyond the standard Christmas carols or holiday party.
A pedestrian is dead, and police are investigating following a collision in a north London parking lot on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have lifted a shelter-in-place order for parts of St. John's.
Nova Scotia Power is providing more information about the cyberattack on the utility earlier this year and its response in the months that followed.
A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York sought an interview with ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor for connections to Canadian sex offender and fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
A mother is grieving after a carbon monoxide incident killed her 11-year-old son and put her husband in hospital in critical condition.
Just as Alberta begins to dig out from its last winter storm, most of the province is preparing for another blast of snow and brutal cold, just in time for the holidays.