[lg policy] Canada: Bilingualism blamed for Ottawa's recruiting woes

[Harold Schiffman]

Bilingualism blamed for Ottawa's recruiting woes

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | 11:26 PM ET C

CBC News

The City of Ottawa is having trouble finding a new fire chief and
filling other top jobs because of a requirement that candidates speak
both French and English, a city councillor alleges. "What's happened
is it's limiting the job pool. And there's no question about it," Jan
Harder, councillor for Barrhaven, said Tuesday. "People are being very
honest in telling me that."  Harder alleged that few candidates are
applying and those who do are "less than desirable."  In the meantime,
she said, the city has been without a fire chief since Rick Larabie
retired four months ago and one of the city's directors has been doing
two jobs while the parks and recreation director position remains
unfilled.

The City of Ottawa's language policy requires people hired for certain
jobs — especially senior positions and front-line service positions —
to be bilingual. However, Diane Deans, chair of the committee in
charge of hiring a new fire chief, insists the city isn't limiting its
pool of candidates based on the language requirement. "We have not
excluded anyone from either of our executive searches due to
language," she said, adding that the city is taking its time looking
for the perfect candidate and will soon be starting interviews.
She suggested it may be more difficult to find qualified people at the
moment because people are afraid to leave a secure job for a new post
when the economy is flagging or because the population is aging and
older people may be less keen to switch jobs and cities.

Exemption possible

The city does have a policy that allows managers to ask city council
for an exemption to the language requirement if they can't find a
qualified candidate who is bilingual.

"And maybe we will," Deans said.

However, the city's francophone councillors don't like that idea.

"It's only used in exceptional circumstances," said Michel Bellemare,
councillor for Beacon Hill-Cyrville. "And hopefully they're becoming
fewer and fewer."

He added that the entire public and City of Ottawa benefit when the
language requirement is enforced.

"Because we have at the end of the day administrators who are able to
communicate in both official languages."

Clive Doucet, councillor for Capital ward, said one of Ottawa's
greatest advantages is that it's a bilingual city and Harder's
allegations are "a bit insulting."

Jacques Legendre, councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe, said he finds it
hard to believe that the language requirement is a barrier to finding
successful candidates.

"I think it's a matter of searching properly."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/10/20/bilingual-recruiting-city-ottawa.html

--
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.
(H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list