Comprehensive training

An employee of a Francophone non-profit organization in eastern Ontario was responsible for organizing French language training for members of the employer’s joint health and safety committee. Even though this training is mandatory under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, she had difficulty finding an approved training provider on the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development’s website. Discrepancies between the English and French lists made finding information a challenge. She told us she also noticed that only the first of the three required parts of the training program was available in French, whereas they were all available in English. Lastly, the Occupational Health and Safety Act green book meant to guide the training was not available in French, but the English version was available for order online.

RESULT: We brought these matters to the Ministry. To start, the Ministry helped the woman find an approved provider to give the first two parts of the training program in French. Our discussions continued with the Ministry after that, and it expanded its list of service providers. All three parts of the training program, including the refresher program, are now available in French, both in person and remotely. The Ministry corrected the discrepancies on its website by reconciling the English and French versions of the list of approved providers. Lastly, the French version of the green book is now available to order online.


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.