[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Grey Fox]

The fact that the Federal government & the NCC can only look at english speaking contractors to provide services because having a french speaking contractors considered is too much of a burden and incurs delay is a god damn travesty.

French remains nothing but a burden to the RoC.

[crazy canuck]

The fact that the Federal government & the NCC can only look at english speaking contractors to provide services because having a french speaking contractors considered is too much of a burden and incurs delay is a god damn travesty.

French remains nothing but a burden to the RoC.

That is certainly the spin in the article.  But that is not consistent with the facts reported even in that newspaper.  The facts are that the companies who were shortlisted were all English speaking and so it made no sense to make the documentation bilingual. By the way, nobody selects a direct bid company on the basis of language, it is on the basis of the ability to do the job, but again that doesn't conform with the linguistic grievance narrative.

[HVC]

The article assumes that NCC choose English only bidders to avoid translation costs, but offers no evidence. Translating documents for no reason would be dumb. And I wouldn't expect English version for a bid procurement from all francophone companies.

Now, if NCC has a history of excluding francophone or bilingual companies that another issue, but the reporter offers no proof of that. Does NCC also work with francophone companies as well? Surely it would be easy for the reporter to find out. The fact that it's not mentioned leads me to believe that not the case as it would be a damning point easy to score for Mathilde.

[crazy canuck]

If the angle is always "commercial and practical realities", we may as well dispense with the fiction that Canada is bilingual.

The Civil Code in Quebec allows for contracts to be drafted in English if that is the intent of both parties.  Commercial and practical realities are not an "angle" they are "realities".

[HVC]

Don't forget to do your civic duty and fill out your census fellow Canadians 

[viper37]

Direct bid processes are not uncommon and in fact make commercial sense.  If the companies selected for the direct bid process communicate in English, what would be the purpose of translating all of the contractual documentation into French? 

But it's always French that's a burden.  Somehow, English is never a burden?

Imagine if the Quebec govt decides no documents will be sent in English for large contracts.  Oh, the furor of the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star!

[Valmy]

These days you can just run it through an AI translator. Some burden.

[HVC]

These days you can just run it through an AI translator. Some burden.

I don't think we should encourage people or companies to use AI for legal documents. There there be dragons

[viper37]

Don't forget to do your civic duty and fill out your census fellow Canadians 

Done for both

[Valmy]

These days you can just run it through an AI translator. Some burden.

I don't think we should encourage people or companies to use AI for legal documents. There there be dragons

The federal Canadian government should fund a special AI just for lazy English speaking Canadian governments and companies to translate documents. The AI should be programmed to shame whomever uses it though.

[HVC]

Direct bid processes are not uncommon and in fact make commercial sense.  If the companies selected for the direct bid process communicate in English, what would be the purpose of translating all of the contractual documentation into French? 

But it's always French that's a burden.  Somehow, English is never a burden?

Imagine if the Quebec govt decides no documents will be sent in English for large contracts.  Oh, the furor of the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star!

In a direct bid process to francophone companies? I doubt they'd care. Open bidding would be different, or if it was shown that the companies were picked specifically because they were francophone (something not shown in this case).

[HVC]

These days you can just run it through an AI translator. Some burden.

I don't think we should encourage people or companies to use AI for legal documents. There there be dragons

The federal Canadian government should fund a special AI just for lazy English speaking Canadian governments and companies to translate documents. The AI should be programmed to shame whomever uses it though.

I hope you spell all your French text in larger bolded font, in solidarity

[viper37]

The article assumes that NCC choose English only bidders to avoid translation costs, but offers no evidence. Translating documents for no reason would be dumb. And I wouldn't expect English version for a bid procurement from all francophone companies.

Now, if NCC has a history of excluding francophone or bilingual companies that another issue, but the reporter offers no proof of that. Does NCC also work with francophone companies as well? Surely it would be easy for the reporter to find out. The fact that it's not mentioned leads me to believe that not the case as it would be a damning point easy to score for Mathilde.

Contract rules specifies that the bidding process should be open to all, but they can have exception for emergencies.  They use emergencies loosely.

NCC should work with both francophone and anglophone companies, but it works either with everyone or anglophone companies only.

[HVC]

Article says direct bid is an option under for projects under a certain dollar amount, not in emergency situations?

[viper37]

Direct bid processes are not uncommon and in fact make commercial sense.  If the companies selected for the direct bid process communicate in English, what would be the purpose of translating all of the contractual documentation into French? 

But it's always French that's a burden.  Somehow, English is never a burden?

Imagine if the Quebec govt decides no documents will be sent in English for large contracts.  Oh, the furor of the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star!

In a direct bid process to francophone companies? I doubt they'd care. Open bidding would be different, or if it was shown that the companies were picked specifically because they were francophone (something not shown in this case).

It is shown that the companies were selected on a per language basis.  Do you think they called Jacques Martin Construction Inc from Vanier to ask him if he's interested in bidding on their project?