AFTER COMPLAINTS, CITY HALL CITES PROGRESS

The City of Ottawa ramped up its French-language services in 2014 yet received more complaints than the year before, according to the city’s annual report on services in French.

The number of complaints was 34 per cent greater than in 2013. The city attributed the increase to greater visibility of the online complaints form.

The city’s stated language policy is a commitment to providing services equally in both official languages, although the city is not officially bilingual. An effort to legally establish official bilingualism here before the 2017 celebrations went nowhere.

According to the report, tabled earlier this year, 34 of last year’s French-language services complaints were about OC Transpo’s website, social media and signage. Public works and the parks and recreation departments each received about a dozen complaints about signage. There were 13 complaints about French-language content on the city’s website.

Still, the city’s report says it made strides last year in expanding its French-language offerings: 100 per cent of OC Transpo’s information channels, including its automated phone and email greetings, are in both official languages; 94 per cent of phone and email greetings are in both official languages among designated bilingual positions (16 per cent of full-time city positions are designated bilingual); public events and consultations are now close to 100 per cent bilingual; Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services added 174 more French programs, resulting in 200 additional participants over a six-month perio; French summer camps throughout the city increased by 18 per cent; the number of camps for francophones in Ottawa’s west end increased by 50 per cent; two new francophone spring preschool programs are now in development at two different sites; Le maison de la francophonie, housed in a city-donated former school building valued at $2 million, will over the next year offer more French services in Ottawa’s west end; six community hubs now serve francophones by grouping programs and resources in areas where French services are in high demand; the number of students who participated in the Shenkman Arts Centre’s school visits and workshops increased 66 per cent to 402 student in 2014 from 242; and audiences grew by 930 people at the MIFO Presents series at the Shenkman Arts Centre, featuring 47 shows with a total audience of 13,950 in 2014.