Active offer at the Legislative Assembly

During a visit to the Legislative Assembly, we noticed that the security staff were welcoming visitors in English only, and the ID cards they gave to visitors were also in English only. However, Measure 1 of Ontario Regulation 544/22 regarding the “active offer” of services in French stipulates that “[i]f a person seeking services from an agency or institution, whether it be in person, over the phone or virtually through electronic means, is greeted in English, the person shall also be greeted in French.”

RESULT: We reached out to the Legislative Assembly, which drafted a memo to all security staff describing a detailed procedure for welcoming visitors in both languages. Training was also provided. For the badges, a new system was set up to print bilingual content. The Legislative Assembly took the opportunity afforded by this change to add a dozen additional translations and translate other badges for subcontracting, delivery and school visits.


Learn more about the French Language Services Unit which answers questions and takes complaints about services in French.
Read about how we helped other people in our Selected cases.