Consultation with Official Language Minority Communities on the recruitment of election workers who can serve electors in both official languages

Elections Canada's mandate is to ensure that all citizens can exercise their right to vote, and services to official language minorities are an important part of that mandate. Official language minority communities (OLMCs) are groups of people whose maternal or chosen official language is not the majority language in their province or territory. To provide electors with quality services in the official language of their choice, we need to hire enough workers who can provide these services.

Elections Canada has made several efforts to do so:

• We call on our partners, particularly through the Inspire Democracy program, to promote job opportunities in official language minority communities (OLMCs). Election workers are part of and serve their community.
• We make use of local media to promote job opportunities in OLMCs.
• We created a database of local and regional organizations that can help recruit workers from OLMCs who can serve electors in both English and French.
• Whenever possible, we tap into school networks that offer immersion programs to recruit workers who can serve electors in both English and French.
• We encourage community relations officers to go to local and regional events so they can engage with members of OLMCs and encourage them to work at federal elections.

Despite the above, finding, recruiting and keeping enough workers who can serve electors in both official languages is still a major challenge.

Elections Canada is consulting with OLMC organizations to get their feedback on the communication strategies and tools we have used to mobilize and recruit such workers. We will also discuss possible approaches to make the most of our efforts.