It seems the ideals and aims of bilingualism is back in the news again. The focus, as is often the case, is the expense of “two” systems or “duality”
The whole issue of the so called duality of bilingualism was brought back to the forefront by the statements of a couple of elected conservative MLA’s who questioned the necessity of bilingualism while we are trying to cut costs.
Myth number one to me is that while the existence of bilingualism is a bit costly the fact is that if we were to remove bilingualism it would be even more costly. These costs include the changing of documents from french and bilingual to english as well as changing the way we do business and even the cost of changing signage to reflect a “unilingual” position would all be more costly then leaving things the way they are.
Myth number two is that this position has anything to do with cost. The ridings in question are predominantly english and I suspect (but do not know) that the voters in the riding have made it abundantly clear to these MLAs that if they do not take a stand against bilingualism they likely will not be back. I would also be surprised if in reality these MLAs were not completely aware of their ridings position before the election and likely held similar beliefs themselves.
Bilingualism is up for a form of review during this government’s term and there is going to be some obvious contentous positions discussed with some saying we need far more french and others saying french should not exist in this province at all. Reality is that some area’s of the country offer service in more then one language and some in quite a few. Toronto for example has some of their services offered in 180 languages through translators and other means. We as a province are by no means stretching ourselves to provide services in two languages and with the immigrants coming to our area we are legitimately going to have to consider adding more languages to that list.
I believe we could tighten up costs in our school systems by using a single district for the entire province with some schools designated english schools and some designated french based on need. By using this system we could combine some services allowing for a more efficient approach to service. Health care as well could be tightened up with the use of a single health care system. The reason for this is that all hospitals and clinics should be able to serve any patient in the language of their choice regardless which hospital or clinic the patient chooses to attend.
The official languages commissioner said duality in education is necessary as bilingual schools do not work. I do agree in principal. We need separate french and English schools if we are to not be seen to be trying to assimilate another culture.
We need to make our province more efficiently bilingual. This means that any individual should be able to get any government service in this province in the language of their choice. This also means that no individual should be refused a job because of the language they speak. If we as a province can maintain these goals we can become an efficient and effective bilingual province one which truly supports both the french and english cultures of it’s citizens.
Everyone in this province should feel welcome and included because that is what we as New Brunswickers are known for and we must include our own citizens in this. We are on the right track and with a bit of tweaking and a little less fuss from the hard core antagonists on either side and we can make this not only a bilingual province but one where it’s bilingualism is not a drain on itself but is a benefit.
