At Translation World this week in Toronto, we met Michelle Munroe, the Central Coordinator of Parent and Community Involvement for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). She facilitates the delivery of language services – including translation in 12 languages and interpretation in 175 – for more than 550 schools. TDSB allocates funding for each school to improve school-family engagement irrespective of language. Over the past several decades, Canada’s well-known bilingual policy has morphed toward polylingualism, as evidenced by its strong record of support for community interpreting and other language services.

As one of the world’s wealthiest nations and a top 10 trading nation, Canada nets a high per capita income. While logging and oil remain two of Canada’s most important industries, the services sector dominates Canada’s economy and today employs three out of four Canadians. As we’ve noted previously, the Canadian government plays a strong role in the language industry. The country’s multicultural policy, adopted in 1971 in response to the grievances of Canada’s French-speaking minority, took shape in the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in the 1960s. The Commission advocated recognizing Canada as a bilingual and bicultural society and adopting policies to preserve this character.

In 2009, many Canadians value multiculturalism and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants what amounts to a right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in English, French, and official minority languages in the schools in all provinces and territories. Non-official languages are also significant in Canada, with five million people (over 15 percent of the population) listing one as a first language.

As the world economy continues to integrate, the public discourse in Canada recognizes a connection between multiculturalism and long-term prosperity. Throughout its history, Canada has depended on a large stream of immigrants for its economic growth. While the immigration rate has declined since its peak in the 1960s, Canada still accepts more immigrants as a percentage of its total population than  any other industrialized nation.

Government policies supported by allocation of funds — as in the case of the Toronto District School Board — help guide public sentiment. It could be that the combination of the country’s inherent bilingualism and the long-standing policy favoring immigration as a means to bolster the nation’s economy, make Canada a test case for social “return on investment” in multiculturalism — and a bell-weather indicator of the polylingual societies in our future.