Better Understanding the Obligation to Take Positive Measures (2024)

Purpose of Part VII of the Official Languages Act 
Advancement of equality of status and use of English and French

Under Part VII of the Act, all federal institutions are required to take positive measures.

Why? 
To implement the federal government’s commitments to:

• enhance the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and support and assist their development.
• foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society.
• protect and promote the French language, taking into account that French is in a minority situation in Canada and North America.
• advance opportunities for English and French linguistic minority communities to pursue quality learning in their own language throughout their lives.

How? 
Federal institutions have an ongoing obligation.

1. Conduct impact analyses

Based on dialogue and consultation activities, research and evidence‑based findings, institutions’ impact analyses must take into account:

• potential positive measures and their concrete nature;
• the necessary measures to promote the inclusion of language clauses in federal-provincial/territorial agreements that may contribute to the implementation of the government’s commitments;
• the intentional implementation of the government’s commitments;
• the negative impacts of the institution’s decisions;
• the necessity to protect and promote the French language; and
• the priorities of the English and French linguistic minority communities and other stakeholders.

2. Take positive measures

The positive measures taken must:

• be concrete;
• be taken with the intention of having a beneficial effect on the implementation of the government’s commitments;
• respect the necessity of protecting and promoting the French language in each province and territory; and
• respect the necessity of considering the specific needs of each of the two official language communities.

The obligation not to harm 
Federal institutions have an obligation not to harm the government’s commitments. They must act to avoid or, at the very least, mitigate any immediate or future negative impacts of their decisions on these commitments.

3. Evaluate and monitor positive measures

Federal institutions are required to establish their own evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the measures taken have a concrete, positive impact on the implementation of government commitments. If this is not the case, federal institutions must make the necessary changes.

For more information on the obligation to take positive measures, check out the Roadmap for Federal Institutions’ Obligations Under Part VII of the Official Languages Act.