Standard for Government of Canada Email Notifications

Owned by Paul Delannoy
Last updated: Nov 04, 2020
2 min read

Synopsis

This document spells out official guidelines for creating generic email notification templates in your applications as described by the Treasury Board Secretariat’s (TBS) Standard on Email Management.

This guideline has been abbreviated for the specific purpose noted above. For the full TBS guidelines, refer to the Standard on Email Management.

The Directive on Official Languages for Communications and Services might also be of interest in this context and describes standards for presentation of content in communications.

Naming Conventions for Generic Email Accounts

The email address prefix and suffix must respect official languages requirements, and a hyphen is to be used to separate the two languages. For example: donotreply-nepasrepondre@tc.gc.ca.

Email Signature Blocks for Generic Email Accounts

The signature block must contain the elements described below:

  • Line one: The program or service name, in the first official language, for an email from a generic email account.

  • Line two: The department's applied title as prescribed in the Registry of Applied Titles (Appendix C of the Federal Identity Program Policy), in the first official language required, and the words "Government of Canada" for the English-first stacked signature block or "Gouvernement du Canada" for the French-first signature block.

  • Line three: Email address, telephone and teletypewriter, in the first official language required, each separated by a forward slash (i.e., the / symbol).
    The telephone number must appear with the area code in the following format:
    613-999-1234, including an extension number where applicable.
    Preceded by "Tel:" in English or "Tél. :" in French.
    The teletypewriter number with the area code is to appear in the format 819-999-1234 preceded by the abbreviation "TTY" in English or "ATS :" in French.

  • Line four: No content (empty line).

  • Line five: The program or service name, in the second official language, for an email from a generic email account.

  • Line six: The department's applied title as prescribed in the Registry of Applied Titles (Appendix C of the Federal Identity Program Policy), in the second official language required, and the words "Gouvernement du Canada" for the English-first stacked signature block or "Government of Canada" for the French-first signature block.

  • Line seven: Email address, telephone and teletypewriter, in the second official language required, each separated by a forward slash.

  • Line eight: No content (empty line).

  • Lines nine and ten: The Government of Canada signature and the Canada Wordmark or the departmental identifier, technology permitting.

  • Line eleven: No content (empty line).

  • Line twelve: Approved disclaimer text, if applicable.

Presentation of the Stacked Signature Block

The following requirements apply to the presentation:

  • Sans-serif font style, such as Verdana, Calibri or Arial.

  • Font size is 10 points.

  • Black (#000) font color.

  • White (#FFF) background color.

Example

Marine Safety & Security
Transport Canada, Government of Canada
MarineSafetyAndSecurity-SureteEtSecuriteMaritime@tc.gc.ca / 1-855-859-3123 / TTY 819-999-1234

Sûreté et sécurité maritime
Transports Canada, Gouvernment du Canada
MarineSafetyAndSecurity-SureteEtSecuriteMaritime@tc.gc.ca / 1-855-859-3123 / TTY 819-999-1234

Transport Canada - Transports Canada

Disclaimer: If you have received this email by mistake…
Avertissement: Si vous avez reçu ce message par erreur…