Official Languages penalty ranges updated

Summary#

This is an erratum (correction) to the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement for the Official Languages Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations. The correction, published in the Canada Gazette on March 21, 2026, replaces part of the "Range of penalties" wording and updates the penalty table that accompanies the regulations (the original analysis was published on March 7, 2026).

What it does#

• Replaces three paragraphs under the "Range of penalties" section of the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement with clarified text about how penalties are set.
• Clarifies the three violation categories used to set penalties:
  • Type A: Violations involving services provided pursuant to a contract (references subsection 23(2) of the Official Languages Act).
  • Type B: Violations of other provisions of Part IV of the Official Languages Act, including services provided on behalf of federal institutions.
  • Type C: Violations involving health, safety and security.
• Updates Table 3 (range of penalties) to set explicit monetary limits:
  • Type A — Up to $25,000
  • Type B — Up to $50,000
  • Type C — $5,000–$50,000
• Notes that the HTML version of the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement has already been updated.

Who's affected#

• The main actors affected are entities subject to the Official Languages Act, including contractors who provide services and federal institutions that arrange services.
• The Commissioner of Official Languages is the official who will apply these penalty categories and amounts.
• People who work in or deal with services covered by Part IV of the Official Languages Act (for example, some travel-related service providers) may notice how enforcement and fines are described going forward.
• If it’s unclear whether a specific organization or activity falls under one of these categories, the source does not provide more detail.

Why it matters#

• The correction adds clear dollar ranges for penalties. That makes the likely financial consequences of breaches more visible: up to $25,000 or $50,000, or in the case of serious health/safety breaches, between $5,000 and $50,000.
• For contractors and service providers, these clarified categories and limits affect how big a fine could be if a language-related rule is broken.
• For the public and for complainants, the change helps set expectations about how the Commissioner of Official Languages might translate violations into monetary penalties.
• This document is an update to the published analysis that accompanies the regulations, not necessarily a separate change to the law itself.