No plans to include Indigenous languages to bilingualism bonus, feds say
Global News
The bilingualism bonus is an extra $800 employees receive a year if they work in a position designated as requiring language skills in English and French\.
The federal Treasury Board says it has no plans to expand a bonus – now paid to employees who speak English and French – to those who know an Indigenous language.
The bilingualism bonus is an extra $800 employees receive a year if they work in a position designated as requiring language skills in English and French, Canada’s two official languages.
Expanding it to compensate employees who speak an Indigenous language was among the suggestions senior civil servants proposed late last year as they discussed ways to address language concerns held by some Indigenous public servants.
Some details of those considerations were contained in a briefing note released to The Canadian Press under the federal Access to Information law.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union representing more than 120,000 federal employees covered by Treasury Board, has proposed creating an Indigenous language allowance to introduce compensation for those who use one in the course of their work.
National president Chris Aylward said the union has identified nearly 500 federal employees who speak an Indigenous language on the job.
“It’s a discriminatory practice,” he said in an interview. “When their co-workers are getting paid an allowance to speak a second language and these workers are not ? how can this government justify that?”
“This is a very progressive and, we feel, a very tangible way for the government to recognize the importance of Indigenous languages in Canada ? it’s a win-win.”