Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Good morning.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to tell you about what the department is doing to improve our performance in terms of official languages. I believe that communicating with Canadians in both official languages is an essential element of helping Canadians improve and maintain their health. This is true whether we are issuing health warnings, or educating Canadians about making healthier choices.
This is especially critical in a country as large and diverse as Canada. That's why, as deputy minister, I take very seriously the results of Health Canada's 2009 official languages report card. Regrettably, it shows that while we do well in some areas, overall we have much work to do. Like all report cards, it tells us where we have to improve.
Despite our good intentions, the report makes it clear that there are number of areas where we need to improve, including equitable representation, language of work, and some front-line services to the public. Francophone employees working for Health Canada in the National Capital Region, and outside Quebec and the NCR are under-represented. And, while we have made progress we are still under-represented in terms of anglophone employees in Quebec.
We also know that despite having bilingual employees in bilingual positions, they do not consistently greet the public in both official languages. We take our responsibility seriously and appreciate that we still have work to do. The report card will be very helpful in focusing our efforts. I agree with the Commissioner of Official Languages that leadership and commitment are key to achieving the outcomes we all desire.
Along with my senior management team, I'm working to reorient our official languages strategy and to improve our performance. We are already working on finalizing and implementing a framework for action that will guide our efforts to respond to the commission's findings.
You may be wondering at this point why we don't have a finalized plan, and I am saying that we're still working to finalize it. I want to assure the committee that our department in fact has prepared a plan. While I believe it's very solid, when I reviewed it, I personally wanted to see more of the specifics driven into the plan so that we could be very clear on the specific actions and measures that I have taken, and we've agreed to add those additions to the plan. Staff are currently in the process of preparing this more specific version of the plan.
I've been speaking to you about our plans and our commitments, but I also want to reassure the committee that we have some very solid building blocks of success to build on as we move forward. While I've acknowledged a number of areas that we'll be working to address, we do have a number of successes that the commissioner also pointed out.
Health Canada already has a cross-Canada network of official language coordinators who encourage employees in designated bilingual regions to feel free to work in the official language of their choice in written and verbal communications.
At Health Canada, we expect managers to promote the use of both official languages in the workplace. In fact, this will be built into their annual performance objectives.
When it comes to how we greet members of the public in person, we know we must improve the offer of services in both official languages. To ensure we do, we are going to increase the frequency of monitoring employees' performance in this area from once a year to four times a year overall.
We will use this additional data to provide feedback to employees and their managers on their results. We will know very quickly whether we are seeing improvements or whether further action is required. As I mentioned, these results will also be included in the performance objectives for managers, highlighting their importance and focusing attention.
One area where as a department we have been able to make some significant progress in supporting official language minority communities is in the support for these communities. By 2013, Health Canada will have invested more than $300 million over 10 years to improve access to health care for official language minority communities.
Thanks to this investment, by 2013 we expect 15,000 health professionals to have received French and English second language training in Quebec. We also expect to see close to an additional 3,400 French-speaking health professionals working outside Quebec. We believe these measures will significantly increase the opportunities for citizens across the country to receive health care in the language of their choice.
In shaping these programs and priorities, Health Canada has consulted widely with minority language communities. I personally have met with La Société Santé en Français and Le Consortium national de formation en santé, and have heard both their points of view and their support for these programs.
The department has also been developing programs that support the department's official languages strategy, such as the science management development program and its aboriginal management development program.
These programs offer language training to some of our up-and-coming employees as part of their career development. These and other initiatives show promise for improving linguistic duality at Health Canada.
In summary, there are successes in Health Canada just as there is much work to do.
I'm relatively new to the federal public service. My public service career has been largely in health and health care, including as the provincial deputy minister of health in Saskatchewan. But as an anglophone from the west, I have long sought opportunities
for I myself to learn and improve my French.
I have a very strong commitment to serving the public and to Canada's official languages. I want to assure the committee that I am committed to providing the leadership that's need on this file, and I and my management team are up to the challenge.
I, along with my colleagues, will be happy to answer your questions.
