Exploring municipal translation policies in Canada: The cases of Calgary and Edmonton

This article applies the concept of “translation policy” to two of Canada’s most multicultural cities, Calgary and Edmonton. Following Meylaerts (2017), this study adopts a complexity perspective to account for the “chaotic” (Backhaus, 2012) nature of translation policy in a municipal context. The study draws on a close reading of municipal documents, interviews with municipal employees, and an analysis of the websites of each of the two cities. In so doing, the study reveals the hidden complexity of Calgary’s and Edmonton’s translation policies and questions the relevance of the concept of translation policy in a municipal setting.