7.1 Regulation concerning third parties

Regulation 284/11

Ten years ago, in his first annual report,⁶⁶ the Commissioner raised the issue of the delivery of government services by third parties. He recommended that the Ontario government close the many loopholes in service agreements that allowed third parties to shirk their obligations under the French Language Services Act.

Since this type of service agreement and the decentralization of government services were becoming more common, he had to keep pushing the issue.

Effectiveness of the intervention

His persistence paid off: Regulation 284/11⁶⁷ was adopted in 2011. The Regulation provides for both active offer and delivery of services in keeping with the French Language Services Act.

“(…) every government agency shall ensure that all services that a third party provides to the public on its behalf under an agreement between the agency and the third party are provided in accordance with the Act.” Regulation 284/11⁶⁸

This regulation applies to all new contracts signed after it came into force. However, agencies that had contracts before it was adopted were given a three-year adjustment period to comply with it.

In the years following that grace period, it was noted that most government agencies managed to adopt a systematic process throughout the implementation period.

In addition, most ministries amended the existing French-language service clauses or added one or more new clauses to comply with the new regulation. These are examples of concrete advances made possible by the hard work of the Commissioner’s Office over the years.

66. Supra note 34.

68. Ibid., s. 2(1).