How much does Canada spend making everything in both English and French?

A quick google search turns up a Fraser institute study that put up the cost to 2,4 billion dollars per year, with 1,5 billion dollars coming from the Federal government. Here is the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/16/bilingualism-canada-cost-french_n_1209205.html However, that cost goes far beyond simple translation cost. It includes the maintenance of dual education or health system as well. Reverting to a completly monolingustic government would be impractical in several ways and maybe costly too. Amongst other, it would prevent or curb political participation from the majority of the people of Québec, the second biggest province by population and of parts of New Brunswick, a situation that could lead to a serious democratic deficit. Then, there is the question of education, probably the costliest provision of bilingual service. For Québec to close down it's English school and the rest of Canada to close down it's French ones would no doubt be described as cultural genocide and provoke wide social unrest. It is well worth remembering also the origins of official bilinguism in the Federal government. The Law was adopted after hearing the conclusions of the Laureandeau-Dunton commission that was set up to investigate the severe economic inferiority of the French speaking population. They found that the exclusion of most French speakers from high administrative offices was partly to blame. It can thus be argued that official bilinguism contributed to the economic empowrement of this minority whose level of welth is now similar to the one of English Canadians. Obviously, that must remain a working hypothesis for no direct link can be drawn here. So, I think question (a) can be answered using the elements above. Let's address your specific questions: (b) the total cost of linguistic accomodation for French and English minorities is evaluated by some estimates at about 2,4 billion per years. The total GDP of the country being above 1,5 trillion dollars in 2013, that amounts to 0,001% of total GDP. It's a bit harder to evaluate the policy in terms of government expanditure. Since I'm lazy, we can do it solely with the Federal government who spends about 1,5 billion on bilinguism, part of a total expanditure of 285,5 billion dollars. It reprensents therefore 0,0052% of total government expanditure. You can reproduce the calculation for every province using this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governments_in_Canada_by_annual_expenditures You can read the Fraser institute study by fallowing this link: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/official-language-policies-of-canadian-provinces.pdf (c) According to a poll by the CBC (of 2007, which is quite old, but the numbers shouldn't have changed dramatically), 81% of Canadians support the idea of bilinguism. 91% thinks that the Prime minister should be able to speak both languages Here is the link to the CBC article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/plenty-of-support-for-bilingualism-poll-1.686486  I hope it answers you question thoroughly. Do not hesitate to ask if you need any more details.

A better question might be: How much does it cost to ignore your minorities? First, let me say that technology will eventually make this discussion moot. Many social media platforms for example allow the users to choose the language for the platform. And although tools like Google translate aren't quite there yet, they will be. So translation costs for the Government will drop off drastically. Now, in order to answer the original question, you would need to know every department's budget for translation AND for printing which would in theory be half if they only had to print pamphlets in one language. That is not entirely the case because some regional offices in unilingual provinces can communicate with the population in the local language only. So, you would end up with a number but what would that number mean? What would be the measuring stick to determine if it is worth it? Take another example. All government website have to meet strict accessibility guidelines for the blind and visually impaired. This costs departments missions. The population of Canada that is (seriously) visually impaired, to the point of needing to use special software to browse websites, is what? 1%-2% if that? Is that money well spent? At least two government building that I know of have had to put in special outdoor elevators since their wheelchair ramps (because of space restrictions) were judged too steep. This cost in the middle 6 figures. This, just in case a wheelchair bound person wanted to enter through those doors instead of through another accessible door to the shopping complex. Is that money well spent? Its not my place to say. Society sets the yardstick. As for the end of your question, I don't have the number of Canadians who support it but it is clear that no politician is keen to open up that can of worms!

Like every other country, Canada is, at least metaphorically-speaking, an experiment. No country persists unchanged throughout time and neither will Canada. This reality can be illustrated quite harshly with examples. Look at Ireland in this century, Yugoslavia, Germany and various other places. Canada itself was formed in part on the basis of the conquest of the French-speaking people of what is now Québec by the British in the second half of the 18th century. A hell of a poor start. If that wasn't bad enough francophones have been insulted and affronted numerous times since then in various ways. As Canadians there are always some of us worrying more about the troubles in other lands than about what we are doing to the people within our own borders. Kept apart Québec was developing a national character and national institutions—I would say beyond what the rest of Canada could parallel. Finally a group of Canadian nationalists (including some from Québec) strategised, rather belatedly, that by making it possible for francophones to live easily anywhere in Canada it would or might be possible to make the entire country more like a true bilingual nation thus weakening the province's hold on its francophones. Their strategy was not about bolstering a dying culture. And it was not about appealing to a majority of Canadians since most seemed to resent it for some reason ("I'm not having French rammed down my throat!" was a typical sentiment.) It was about bolstering Canadian federalism. Incidentally, if anyone offered an estimate of the costs no other Canadian would agree with him.

There are four official languages in Switzerland, and the answer to your question if applied here would be 'a lot', especially as Romansch is spoken by less than 1% of the population. But not for one moment does anyone question the wisdom of supporting all four languages, either on an official or commercial level. Just like in Canada, multilingualism is part of the fabric of the country, and you might as well propose flattening the mountains to make it cheaper to cross them as ignoring one or more of the consituent cultures.

I don't think a sum could be attached to your question because it is not measurable. So many factors have to be taken into account that no business I am aware of has measured the cost of bilingual language operations. Some positions such as customer service will pay a premium to bilingual people and that can be measured I suppose. In my roles I would frequently read correspondence in French attach a note summarizing what the correspondent wanted and sent it to the appropriate department. They would respond in English and I would prepare a response in French. That is quite routine and is not measured since it is part of a diverse set of skills that I was capable of doing.  Even if there was not an official language law, it would be next to impossible for any national business in Canada to operate in one language only.

I travelled extensively in the USA these recent years and I am amazed at how much spanish signage there is (airports, restaurants, malls, etc.). Sometime, more and more often, in some areas, there is even spanish only signage. If one was to land in the US not knowing anything about the USA, one might think it is a bilingual country. Yet, the last census says just over 10% are Spanish speaking. How much does it cost the private industry in the US to do so ?   As for canadian industries, the cost of printing a box of cereal, for example, in one or two languages is  pretty close, given the fee for a decent translator, divided by godzillions of cereal boxes being infinitesimal.

Whatever the cost is, it's a fair price to pay to preserve national cohesion.  Canada's history is a little different than that of the U.S.  Basically, it was a French-speaking civilization for 150 years until it was finally conquered by the British.  In order to reconcile their new subjects, the British agreed to allow them to use their language and practice their religion (Catholicism) on an official basis.  To do otherwise might have led to Quebec allying itself with the 13 colonies to the south and thus Britain might have lost all of its North American territory, instead of just half of it. After the British conquest, French immigration to Canada essentially ceased for two centuries, while British/Irish immigration was substantial.  This allowed English speakers to eventually become the majority outside of Quebec, and for a time (in the 19th and early 20th centuries) the new provinces established west of Quebec had little interest in protecting francophones' linguistic rights.  For example, some provinces banned the learning of French in school for a time.  These events led to much of  francophone population outside of Quebec to assimilate into anglophone society, so that now, francophones are a small minority in most places.     In Quebec, these events were noted by the population and many worried that their future as a francophone society was uncertain in Canada.  From the 1960s onward, there has been a major movement in favor of independence for the province.  The prospect of the country coming apart naturally worried the Canadian leaders, and since the late '60s, it has adopted laws to protect the rights of francophones throughout Canada.  These same laws also now protect the rights of anglophones within Quebec, where French is the sole official language.  Quebec has gone through a tumultuous period in which there were two referendums on independence (1980 and 1995), and the latter nearly succeeded.  But support for independence has gradually diminished since 1995 and at this point most Québécois are more or less okay with the status quo.  Official bilingualism has done a great deal towards reconciling them to Canada.  Without it, it's quite likely that one of the referendums would have passed and Canada would have come apart.