The Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order sets out the situations whereby, for non-imperative appointments, public servants may be exempted from the obligation of meeting the official language requirements of their bilingual positions within a specific timeline.
On a yearly basis, deputy heads of federal departments and agencies governed by the Public Service Employment Act must report to the Public Service Commission of Canada on the use of the order and the Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations.
As a result of the reporting from deputy heads, cases of employees who do not meet the language requirements of their bilingual positions within the timelines are identified as non-compliant.
The Public Service Commission supports organizations in resolving these situations.
Overall, the management of exclusions provided by the order has considerably improved from year to year and results have stabilized in the last few years. This decrease in the number of non-compliant cases is attributable to a number of factors: these cases have been monitored more closely by organizations, and the number of non-imperative appointments, which are a prerequisite for people to be excluded, has also decreased.
The Public Service Commission follows up with departments and agencies on situations that have reached the end of the maximum period prescribed by the order to ensure that incumbents obtain second language evaluation results that correspond to the linguistic profile of the position and meet merit with respect to official language proficiency.