Tache passes bilingualism bylaw

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This article was published 28/09/2017 (2611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RM of Tache has adopted a municipal-wide bilingual language policy.

A Tuesday vote on the new bylaw was carried 7-1. Ward 2 councillor George McGregor cast the lone opposing vote.

Mayor Robert Rivard later explained McGregor did not dislike the bylaw, but merely did not see its relevance for the LUD of Landmark. If any language policy was to be of practical benefit there, Rivard said, it would likely need to be German-English, rather than French-English.

“This is a French bilingual bylaw,” Rivard said. “He’s not opposed to it, he’s just wondering why one instead of the other.”

The bylaw received first and second reading in August, following a June delegation from Louis Tetrault, executive director of the Association of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (AMBM), and Yann Boissonneault, chair of the Tache Development Corporation.

The bylaw will allow Tache as a whole to become an AMBM member, opening up translation services and grant opportunities that were previously only available to the LUD of Lorette, which had been an AMBM member for some time.

The wording of the bylaw leaves signage, hiring, and public service changes to the discretion of council and administration, to avoid costly switchovers and exclusionary rules.

“We wanted to make sure that…it’s not going to impose anything,” Rivard said. “The municipality in general will go bilingual where people want it.”

Thus, the measures contained in the bylaw will be implemented “inasmuch as reasonably possible.” Moving forward, CAO Christine Hutlet will ensure at least one administrative employee is bilingual, and hire bilingual employees “where practical.” Municipal council and LUD of Lorette meeting minutes will be posted in French and English, with translation of other documents available upon request.

Any unilingual Tache road and office signage will be made bilingual only when in need of replacement.

The municipality will also ask the Province of Manitoba to install bilingual signs on its roadways and properties within Tache’s municipal boundaries.

As per an amendment to the bylaw, all signage shall be bilingual within the LUD of Lorette.

The bylaw’s preamble noted Tache “has a tradition of more than a century of equitable service to the citizens of both official language communities.”