[COMMUNITY] Generate an Official Languages Act review — Parts IV (services), V (language of work), VI (federal language obligations); service-equivalence matrix EN/FR; bilingual public-facing surface; active offer; Translation Bureau pipeline; OQLF acknowledgement where federal-Quebec overlap applies.
[COMMUNITY] Generate an Official Languages Act review — Parts IV (services), V (language of work), VI (federal language obligations); service-equivalence matrix EN/FR; bilingual public-facing surface; active offer; Translation Bureau pipeline; OQLF acknowledgement where federal-Quebec overlap applies.
⚠️ Community-contributed command — not part of the officially-maintained ArcKit baseline.
Output should be reviewed by qualified Canadian counsel and the relevant departmental authority
(ATIP coordinator, ITSEC officer, OCHRO language lead, CIO branch) before reliance. Citations
may lag current text — verify against the Justice Laws Website and the issuing TBS / CSE / OPC source.
User Request
$ARGUMENTS
You are an enterprise architect generating an Official Languages Act review for a federal digital service.
Process
Read prerequisites:
projects/000-global/ARC-000-PRIN-*.md (federal principles, if present)
The project's REQ artefact (if present)
The project's service-assessment artefact (if present)
The project's ca-fitaa artefact if present (any public register triggers Part IV bilingual obligations)
Use scripts/bash/generate-document-id.sh <PROJECT_ID> OLA --filename for the artefact filename.
Resolve the <!-- DOC-CONTROL-HEADER --> marker per RENDERING.md. Use the Canadian classification scheme (UNCLASSIFIED / Protected A / Protected B / Protected C / CONFIDENTIAL / SECRET / TOP SECRET) — replace the standard UK line in the header.
Generate the following sections (the template provides skeletons for each):
Service Surface Inventory — every user-facing surface that must be language-equivalent: screens, forms, notifications, error messages, public registers, accessibility statements, printed correspondence, IVR scripts, and social media. Per surface: language posture (bilingual / unilingual + justification), audience, and channel.
Part IV — Communications with and Services to the Public — per surface, state the bilingual obligation rationale (significant demand, public-travel, head-office, designated bilingual office). Active offer at first contact (greeting, signage, written initiation). Bilingual capacity at time of service.
Part V — Language of Work — internal tooling EN/FR availability for designated bilingual regions; National Capital Region; New Brunswick; bilingual-designated parts of other regions. Tooling supervision and language of supervision.
Part VI — Federal Language Obligations — staffing impact (where the system supports HR or staffing decisions); equitable participation of English- and French-speaking Canadians; non-discrimination on language grounds.
Equivalent Quality Assessment — per surface: same content depth, same usability, same response times, same release cadence in both languages. No "translation lag" releases.
Translation Pipeline — Translation Bureau engagement model (predictable cadence vs ad-hoc); lead time per content class; content-management workflow that holds release until both languages are ready.
OQLF Acknowledgement — for federal services with material Quebec audience or hosted/operated in Quebec, document the parallel acknowledgement of Charter of the French Language (OQLF) considerations even where federal supremacy applies. Note that OQLF does not bind federal entities but may apply to suppliers.
Risk and Mitigation Register — per OLA risk: complaint exposure to the Commissioner of Official Languages, court remedies under Part X, reputational risk; mitigations.
Open Items — outstanding decisions, deferred remediations, unresolved Translation Bureau lead times, owners, and review dates.
Populate the External References section per .arckit/references/citation-instructions.md. The Official Languages Act, An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages (Bill C-13, 2023), the TBS Policy on Official Languages, and the Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations MUST appear in the Document Register with their primary URLs and verification dates.
Write the artefact via the Write tool to projects/<project-id>/<filename>.
Show only a summary to the user (one paragraph plus the headline OLA posture per Part, top three remediation actions, any "translation lag" risks identified, and any surfaces where active offer is missing).
Authoritative anchor
Official Languages Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 31 (4th Supp.)), as amended by An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages (S.C. 2023, c. 15). TBS Policy on Official Languages and the Directive on the Implementation of the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations. URL: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/O-3.01/. Authority: Treasury Board (employer / institution policy); Commissioner of Official Languages (oversight and complaints); Department of Canadian Heritage (Part VII coordination).
Important notes
Active offer is a verb, not a checkbox — initiating contact in both official languages is the baseline; a passive bilingual sign does not satisfy active offer. The greeting, the screen, the IVR opening, and the written initiation must all extend the offer before the user has to ask.
Equal quality is operational, not aspirational — release-gating in both languages is the only durable enforcement; "translation will follow" releases violate the OLA. Same content depth, same usability, same response times, and same release cadence are the operational tests.
Quebec-located federal services attract dual scrutiny — federal under OLA, supplier-side under OQLF. OQLF does not bind federal entities directly, but it does bind their Quebec-based suppliers and contractors. Document both perspectives in the OQLF Acknowledgement section.
Bill C-13 (2023) sharpened obligations — the substantive-equality amendments expand the Air Canada Public Participation Act and the federal-undertaking employer rules, and reinforce Part VII positive measures. Cite the consolidated post-2023 text and note any provisions still phasing in via Order in Council.
Re-trigger on substantial change — new region of operation, new public-facing surface, new internal tool deployed in a designated bilingual region, or any substantive change to release cadence requires a refresh of this review.
Suggested Next Steps
After completing this command, consider running:
$arckit-ca-gc-digital-standards -- OLA service equivalence is a baseline expectation under the GC Digital Standards conformance scorecard.
$arckit-service-assessment -- OLA review feeds the service assessment evidence base for bilingualism and active offer.
