Interpreters who work on Parliament Hill say changes to their accreditation process risk degrading the quality of interpreting services in Canada鈥檚 federal government.
The Translation Bureau, which provides translation and interpreting services to government organizations, has begun using an external consultant during accreditation exams instead of a jury of senior interpreters from within the bureau.
As of November, an external juror has carried the same weight as four staff interpreters combined previously. According to the Canadian chapter of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC-Canada), a Translation Bureau executive will break the tie in the case of a disagreement.
AIIC-Canada is warning that the race to fill interpreter positions will result in lesser-quality interpreting of committee hearings, Q&A periods, and beyond.
鈥淚 think really the most important thing is that it鈥檚 really sad to see that the Translation Bureau is giving priority to just filling in the spots over quality,鈥 said Alionka Skup, president of AIIC-Canada. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really the impact on the quality of official languages, at Parliament of all places, where you need high-quality interpreting to make sure that parliamentarians understand one another and can do their job properly for their constituents.鈥
Mich猫le LaRose, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said the Translation Bureau was now including 鈥渋ndependent experts from the high-level conference interpreting community to provide an external perspective on the evaluations.鈥
鈥淭his allowed us to obtain a diversity of opinions from experts in their field, ensure greater transparency in the process, and inform any necessary improvements to the process,鈥 said LaRose, who added that there were 鈥渘o changes to the evaluation criteria from previous years, and performance and quality expectations remain the same.鈥
Ottawa Citizen (12/11/25) By Matteo Cimellaro