Dropped call

Ontario Northland, a government agency, is responsible for providing transportation services in Northern Ontario. A Francophone who wanted information from Ontario Northland called the agency’s toll-free line to book bus tickets, and felt frustrated by the experience. Even though the Francophone chose the French option, the system put them on hold with information messages in English.

Once the call was connected, the Francophone asked to be served in French, and the call dropped. The Francophone tried again, choosing the French option, and the call was either dropped or no one answered after several minutes on hold. Only once they chose the English option were they able to get the information they wanted.

RESULT: As a result of our intervention, Ontario Northland began the process to hire three full-time bilingual employees and one substitute bilingual employee to make sure the call centre was operational 24/7. Ontario Northland is also working on updating its system so the caller’s chosen language is recorded as soon as the call is received, meaning that “hold” messages will be in French when the caller has chosen French. Call centre staff were also reminded to practice the “active offer” of service in French.


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.