N.B. to open Secretariat of Official Languages to oversee province's languages act

FREDERICTON -

New Brunswick is set to launch a Secretariat of Official Languages that will oversee the way the government carries out its duties under the province's Official Languages Act, Premier Blaine Higgs announced Monday.

The new bureau, which will be inside the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs, is a response to a review last year of the languages act, which establishes New Brunswick as the only officially bilingual province in the country.

"This secretariat will help us to promote the many positive aspects of a province with two official languages and help us to strengthen our abilities to provide New Brunswickers and visitors with quality services in both English and French," Higgs told reporters.

Last year's review of the languages act, however, didn't recommend a secretariat. Written by provincial court Judge Yvette Finn and former deputy education minister John McLaughlin, the review called for the creation of a Department of Official Languages, among other things.

Higgs's announcement on Monday didn't directly address any of the recommendations issued in last December's review. Instead, he said that would be the secretariat's job.

"The role of the secretariat is to understand what's actually happening within individual departments," he said. "That we are meeting the levels of the language act that we're obligated to do."

The Higgs government has been accused by francophone leaders across the province of not being sufficiently committed to bilingualism.

And last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebuked Higgs for naming Kris Austin -- former leader of the defunct People's Alliance of New Brunswick who is known for his past criticism of bilingualism -- to a committee reviewing the province's Official Languages Act. Austin is the province's public safety minister.

The government also came under fire from Dominic Cardy, who resigned as education minister in October and accused Higgs of moving too quickly to reform the French immersion program in schools.

On Monday, Higgs said the language debate has become a "political issue that hasn't allowed us to advance as much as we perhaps should."

A major Acadian group in the province -- Societe de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick -- said Higgs's announcement on Monday was a "monumental farce."

The group said that while the secretariat is not a bad thing, it said Higgs seemed to insinuate during the news conference that the new bureau would allow members of the legislature to be released from their duties under the languages act.

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," Alexandre Cedric Doucet, president of the Acadian society, said in a news release.

"I am amazed that after more than a year of waiting, Premier Higgs dared to take the microphone today without addressing any of the recommendations made in the (review)," Doucet said.

"We deserve better from our government."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2022.