When Canadians are asked to “buy Canadian,” most of us think about retail. But there is another sector where buying Canadian matters deeply: knowledge services and, in our case, language services.
That is why the question of who delivers these services and how matters.
At MCIS, we are proudly Canadian. We operate a local call centre, host our servers in Canada, and engage Canadians to serve Canadian communities. Our interpreters understand this country’s institutions, social services, legal aid, healthcare systems, and cultural realities because they live and work here. That local knowledge is not incidental. It directly contributes to service quality.
Yet too often, federal, provincial, and municipal interpretation contracts and more broadly public sector interpretation contracts are awarded to foreign controlled firms that enter the market through a back door. They bid through Canadian “front” companies while relying heavily on offshore labour. In many cases, the people ultimately delivering interpretation services are far removed from the Canadian context, with uneven training and inconsistent language proficiency testing. In interpretation especially, regulation remains fragmented, and some companies take advantage of loopholes to deliver services with serious quality gaps.
That should concern all of us.
A low bid may look attractive on paper. But when language services are treated as interchangeable and reduced to price alone, the real costs are simply shifted elsewhere. Misunderstandings in healthcare, poor experiences in social services, delays, complaints, repeat appointments, and avoidable harm.
Canadian buyers and procurement professionals in public institutions should ask tougher questions.
- Where is the service actually being delivered from?
- Can you provide proof? Who are the interpreters answering the calls?
- What training do they receive?
- How are they tested?
- How can you demonstrate that they understand the legal, medical, educational, and social realities of the communities they serve?
- Where is the data stored?
- Are you open to privacy and security assessments?
- How long have you served the Canadian public sector?
- Can you provide at least three references from Canadian clients you have worked with for five years or more?
These are not abstract questions. They go to the heart of safety, accountability, and public trust.
When I speak to interpreters who work in our Canadian call centre and provide in person services to hundreds of organizations across our vast nation, I am moved by their passion and commitment to serving our most vulnerable communities. They drive through snowstorms and travel for hours to reach destinations. Over the phone, they take calls at all hours of the day and night, making it possible for us to offer services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
One interpreter told me, “I really enjoy the work. If I could have full time hours, I would be over the moon.”
Another said simply, “Yes, I do. I appreciate the work a lot.”
Another reflected on the emotional weight of the job and the discipline it requires. “When I hang up the phone, I go and pray because I feel so, so sad.” Yet despite facilitating difficult conversations every day, their greatest stress does not come from the work itself, but from the financial instability of the sector. Buying Canadian would alleviate some of that stress.
Others spoke about the professionalism the work demands. One interpreter, who has also taught interpreter training, said, “I taught the course, so I know the ethics and the principles and all of that.” Another described how, after every assignment, he reflects on what he did well and what he still needs to improve.
These are not people chasing easy money. These are professionals who care about accuracy, ethics, dignity, and the communities they serve.
They also care about being prepared. Interpreters in our network described taking formal training, certification, and ongoing professional development seriously. Sandra Flores spoke about completing required training to enter the field and continually taking additional courses whenever possible. Ben Ho described taking MCIS training and passing certification before building his practice. Doha Shaheen not only interpreted for two decades, but also taught interpreter training and administered testing.
This is what a real language access ecosystem looks like: training, testing, professionalism, accountability, and local understanding.
Buying Canadian in language services means investing in Canadian capacity and supporting and enriching our local communities. It means sustaining meaningful work for interpreters who live here, pay taxes here, and serve communities here. It means keeping service infrastructure in Canada. It means ensuring that language access is shaped by people who understand what it means to navigate a Canadian hospital, school board, court, or social service agency.
It also means recognizing that quality language access cannot be built on a race to the bottom.
If procurement rewards only the cheapest visible price, Canadian organizations that invest in infrastructure, compliance, data security, interpreter support, and quality assurance will always be disadvantaged compared to firms that externalize those costs. But if procurement evaluates total value including safety, local knowledge, accountability, service continuity, data sovereignty, and community impact, the picture changes. And it should.
Buying Canadian is not about protectionism for its own sake. It is about protecting the integrity of services that people rely on in their most vulnerable moments.
In language services, buying Canadian means choosing providers who are rooted here, accountable here, and committed here. It means spending in Canadian dollars rather than being exposed to currency fluctuations.
It means understanding that interpretation is not just about words. It is about context. It is about trust. It is about people being heard, understood, and treated with dignity.
And when that is what is at stake, Canada should not settle for a “front” that poses as Canadian. Often, it is American or based elsewhere. We should choose the real thing.
Latha Sukumar – MCIS Executive Director