Moncton councillor questions level of bilingual jobs needed in city
Moncton often boasts about being Canada's only officially bilingual city, but a local councillor says there are too many jobs at city hall that are only available to bilingual people.
Coun. Kathryn Barnes said she's getting complaints from people about the number of bilingual jobs.
All bilingual positions have to be approved by city council and the latest example was a new building inspector.
Barnes, who was the only councillor who voted against hiring a new bilingual building inspector, said with six out of nine inspectors designated as bilingual, that's probably too many.
"We're reaching a stage in our community where I'm getting a lot of people telling me that you know if they don't speak French they can't get a job here," Barnes said.
Language conflict is nothing new for Moncton. It was home to the infamous fights between former mayor Leonard Jones and university students over official bilingualism in the late 1960s. One fight led two students to leave a severed pig's head at the mayor's house.
Moncton is a growing city, mainly because of francophones who are moving to the region from northern New Brunswick. The latest census statistics show that northern communities are seeing their populations dwindle, while cities such as Moncton, and neighbouring Dieppe, are seeing significant growth.
The city is also home to the Université de Moncton, the province's French-language university.
The city's website says that in the greater Moncton region, 62 per cent of the population, or roughly 77,000 people, are anglophones. Thirty-five per cent, or more than 42,000, identify themselves as francophone.
Coun. Daniel Bourgeois disagrees with how his counterpart interprets the number of bilingual jobs offered in Moncton. He thinks the overall number of bilingual positions at city hall is quite small.
He said 77 out of roughly 600 city employees, or 13 per cent, are designated as bilingual.
Catherine Dallaire, the city's assistant manager, confirmed that percentage.
Dallaire added that those are the officially bilingual positions, including 911 operators, receptionists and some building inspectors.
As for the rest of the city's jobs, Dallaire said that at least half the employees at city hall have some knowledge of both languages and the rest speak only English.