Official bilingualism in the public service of Canada

Because Canada has, for over two centuries, contained both English- and French-speakers, the question of the language used in the administration of public affairs has always been a sensitive issue. Among the aspect of this issue that have excited public attention from time to time are: the perception of fairness or unfairness in hiring and promoting speakers of one official language over speakers of the other; the choice of one language over the other for meetings, documents, and internal memoranda (which are sometimes collectively characterized as the work “environment”); the promotion of bilingual job candidates over people who only speak only one or the other of the two official languages; the availability (or lack of availability) of language training for public servants, who cannot advance without the ability to speak both languages; the costs associated with language-based hiring and promotion practices, including the practice of paying a “bilingual bonus” to public servants capable of speaking both official languages; the need to provide government services to some Canadians in English, and to others in French.

Source: Wikipedia — Official bilingualism in the public service of Canada (CC BY-SA 4.0)