That question being raised by Joyce Wright, a concerned citizen in St. Stephen, who claims English-only people are being denied government jobs because the province is keeping a 50% bilingual workforce in keeping with the Official Languages Act.
"Our bilingual population here in Charlotte County is only 8.07%. So requiring 50% of our government employees to be bilingual is discriminating against the majority of the population saying 'because you can only speak English, you can't have this job', and it's driving more and more people out west."
Wright tells Tide News, "At the Charlotte County Hospital, it's my belief that instead of denying an English-only speaking person a job, the government should say 'we have all this technology available to us, let's set up a translation center that an English employee can link into instantly to a translator' rather than enforcing a discriminatory hiring ratio."
Wright is welcoming anyone and everyone to contact her about a hard-copy petition as well as an online petition on www.change.org .
She says, "Let's get this going so more of our people are employed and we can stop saying goodbye to our friends and family who are moving out west by the droves because they can't get a job in New Brunswick."
To contact Joyce Wright, call 1-506-466-2431 or email at djwright@nbnet.nb.ca .
