Honourable Mention: ServiceOntario’s French Language Service Resource Corner

Last year, the Central Office Branch of ServiceOntario launched the French Language Service Resource Corner. This great initiative was inspired by a bilingual employee who worked with his colleagues to promote French-language services. The goal of the French Language Service Resource Corner is to enhance the active offer of French-language services by the front line staff; an issue that is certainly of great importance as I have discussed it in the past. By providing his colleagues with information about French-language services in the Ontario Public Service and conducting language sessions to equip his peers with commonly used French phrases, this exceptional employee’s efforts have helped to create a welcoming atmosphere for Francophones who visit ServiceOntario.

Based on positive feedback from staff, a resource centre was launched earlier this year at another ServiceOntario branch in the Central Region, and there are plans to open more resource corners at other ServiceOntario offices across the region.

This is an example of someone who took it in his own hands to help improve the situation of active offer of French-language services to help benefit a whole community. With nearly 300 service centres processing over 48 million transactions every year, this action will undoubtedly go a long way in improving the efforts of our government to provide adequate service to the Francophone population.

The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.