04-07-2018, 10:53 PM
(04-07-2018, 05:18 PM)Canard Wrote: The official bilingualism regulations are a federal jurisdiction, and only apply to federal services, institutions, and employees. Each province is free to implement their own bilingualism regulations, and to date only New Brunswick is "officially" bilingual. Ontario has regulated bilingual "regions" (like Ottawa, Sudbury, and Welland) where funding for schools, cultural programs, and the like apply, but Waterloo Region isn't one of them. So, the Region isn't technically obligated to provide any French services or signage.
A good example: VIA is federally regulated/owned, and is bilingual; GO Transit, provincially regulated/owned, is not.
(I didn't actually know any of that - that's from my husband, a Franco-Ontarian, with some input )
(I think it would have been a nice gesture to have both, though.)
GO Transit has bad French translations, yes. Waterloo does have French school boards and one has a right to send one's children to French school if one's first language is French or one was educated in French in Canada at the primary level or if the child has already gone to French school.