2 days ago
Spears: How official languages absurdity shuts down information at the NCC
Article content
Unable to translate tens of thousands of pages into both languages when the original documents and records were only in one, the NCC had to take down the whole section of its website that offered these records to the public.
Article content
So, what is it that so urgently needs translation? The NCC handles more than 100 access requests a year, often numbering hundreds of pages apiece. Here's an example. I asked about fixing the roof of the official residence at Harrington Lake and got back 256 pages with a lot like this one:
Article content
'Any membrane placed on the existing wood plank sheathing or on any material directly attached to the existing wood plank sheathing shall feature vapour permeability properties to allow for any moisture within the existing roof assembly to be released to the exterior.'
Article content
There follows some discussion of roof membrane options (FT synthetics, hydra breathable; or Titanium PSU self-adhered underlayment, high temp).
Article content
Article content
Also insulation: BP Esgard resistance roof insulator, an inch thick in a rigid wood fibre panel, or Gutex Multitherm 40 mm wood fibre board.
Article content
Do we really need that sort of thing translated? And remember, this is a document that I alone asked for, so it's not clear who the translation job would be serving. (On the plus side, I could learn a lot of French vocabulary about roofing.)
Article content
Of course NCC documents come in many forms. Some look like this expense spreadsheet for Rideau Cottage: 'STY pest control as per quote dated March 11, 2022 240.00.'
Article content
There are also vast numbers of emails in which employee A asks employee B whether her team is free to meet on Thursday.
Article content
The public service is an email-generating machine, pages and pages, mostly informal notes in one language only.
Article content
The new ruling is that the Canadian public needs all this — including the dross — in both official languages if it's going to be made available on a website. Failing that, public access must be shut down. Which it now has been.
Article content
Article content
Wrong approach.
Article content
My house is 100 years old. No level floors or square angles are left, and it will never be perfect. But I don't tear it down and pretend this is an improvement. You don't destroy something for being imperfect — except that the government of Canada has now done so.
Article content
This means the public can't see useful federal documents because no one has translated into both languages 'Gutex Multitherm 40 mm' or 'Titanium PSU self-adhered underlayment.' For a one-time, non-controversial roof repair.
Article content
