Vancouver 2010 gets $7.7M more in bilingual funding 16/09/2009 |
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Ottawa's rushed bid to spend $7.7 million to beef up bilingualism at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is just a bid to buy votes in Quebec, says a B.C. taxpayer watchdog.
"I think they're concerned about the vote in Quebec and they don't want to do anything that might undermine that," Maureen Bader, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation said Tuesday.
"It's simply a vote-buying exercise because of the possibility of an election this fall."
Two reports Tuesday harshly criticized 2010's bilingualism program.
Tuesday morning, Graham Fraser, Commissioner of Official Languages, took a swing at 2010 and other federal institutions, saying they still had a long way to go with French-language services.
"Five months before the start of the celebrations, we see that many crucial elements are still not in place," he said.
Fraser zeroed in on translation shortcomings inside the Olympic organizing committee and criticized it for having a "strict minimum" of 3,500 bilingual volunteers out of a total of 25,000.
A Senate report released several hours later mirrored Fraser's concerns.
But during question period in the House of Commons, James Moore, Heritage and Official Languages Minister, rode to the rescue.
Moore announced the $7.7 million in new funding, which includes $5.3 million for extra translation services, $900,000 to make Olympic ceremonies more bilingual and $1.5 million for permanent signage.
"We will hit the ground running and the Games will be fully bilingual," Moore said later. "We want it to be a seamless bilingual experience for Canadians, in the official language of their choice."
Fraser said he was delighted by the news but added he hasn't had time to study the "nitty-gritty" of the figures and see if all his concerns have been met.
Vancouver 2010 appeared to be caught offguard by Moore's news.
Tuesday morning, Donna Wilson, 2010's human resources boss, thanked Graham for his recommendations and said organizers would "take each under consideration and continue our best efforts to ensure Canada's linguistic duality is fully showcased at the 2010 Games."
A few hours later later, an "urgent" statement was released thanking Ottawa.
(Source: canada.com)
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