Official Languages Committee on March 24th, 2011

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 54th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

We will start this morning with representatives from the Department of Industry: Mr. Dicerni, Mr. Davies, and Mr. James.

Gentlemen, you have the floor. We will then go on to our normal rounds of questioning.

[Richard Dicerni, Deputy Minister, Department of Industry]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am accompanied today, on my right, by my colleague, Mr. Davies, Assistant Deputy Minister for Industry Canada's Regional Operations Sector. He is responsible for part VII of the Official Languages Act, as well as being Official Languages Champion. On my left is Bill James, the Director General of Human Resources, and he is responsible for official languages program management.

I want to address three things. First of all, I would like to provide a general overview of the department's mandate, of what we do. Secondly, I would like to give you some data on Industry Canada's workforce. Thirdly, I would like to specifically discuss the commissioner's recent report.

Industry Canada delivers a wide range of programs and services. Basically, our three-fold mandate is to firstly develop and administer what we call framework policies, secondly to foster the knowledge-based economy, and thirdly to support small- and medium-sized businesses to promote competitiveness and productivity. Our program areas include developing industry and technology capability. They also include fostering scientific research, promoting investment and trade, and promoting small business development.

Now, let's move on to the data. The department has about 5,800 indeterminate employees, 78.5% of whom are based in the National Capital Region. Our workforce is spread out among 29 different occupational groups. Many of these people work in different areas, and include commerce officers, patent examiners, and measurement inspectors.

About 3,400 of our employees are in bilingual positions—representing 60% of the department's total population. Of those bilingual employees, about 2,400 provide service to the public. The other 1,000 employees hold management positions or offer corporate services within the department. Ninety-seven per cent of departmental employees meet the language requirements of their positions. The number of employees requiring language training has gone down about 25% over the last five years, due in part to an increase in persons meeting the language requirement of the job at time of appointment. Moreover, all of our 230 executives meet the language profile required, with the exception of one who has reached the exemption level. Recently, 32% of our executives, including the deputy minister, have cited French as their first official language.

Thirdly, I want to discuss the commissioner's report. The department's overall rating fell to a "C" from "B". In recent months, departmental officials have met with representatives from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. They have sought to understand why we received that rating and to discuss where improvements are required.

Now, let me turn specifically to the four parts of the act. I will do so in English.

Part IV of the act deals with service to the public. Industry Canada has about 65 points of service across the country, and 59 of these are bilingual. There are six major areas where we offer services: Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications, where we do inspection and certification; the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy; the Competition Bureau; Corporations Canada; Measurement Canada; and FedNor in the north of Ontario. To a large degree these services are accessed by specific client groups. There are few programs in the department that cater to the broad general public, as compared with, say, Passport Canada or Canada Border Services Agency. We have a targeted clientele who want specific services. The Spectrum group, for example, certifies radio operators and does investigations when there are antenna-related issues. Measurement Canada inspects the accuracy of measurement devices in gas, weights and measures. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy licenses trustees

when people go bankrupt.

As far as our performance on in-person service is concerned, we received the following ratings: active visual offer, 87% of the time; and active offer made by staff, 40% of the time, which is not good. Service in the language of the linguistic minority was available in 73% of the cases. For service by phone, active offer was made by staff or automated system 81% of the time.

For all of the above we got a rating of D, which obviously is not good. We've taken some steps since the report was done to improve. I'll give you a few examples.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy had 13 regional offices where people could phone in. We've consolidated that for a number of reasons, including to provide better language service, into three fully bilingual regional service centres. That's for the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. I'll come back to that later.

In Montreal, because we have some problems in some of the other areas of the act in terms of anglophones in Montreal, our regional director is a person whose first language is English so we can address some of the other issues.

On a more regular basis we do spot checks of our toll lines. Over the last few weeks, somewhat in preparation for my presentation and visit here, we did a further spot check of our toll lines, and have followed up with remedial action where necessary.

Overall, I think the department has the right number of bilingual positions. We have the right number of people with the right training. There are some gaps. There are some places where we are having problems. I'd point out that with Measurement Canada we still have problems in Penticton, London, and Belleville. For Spectrum, we have a problem in Sydney. We're trying to ensure that we have either phone backup or that additional staff can be recruited in those places where we have difficulty recruiting.

Overall, I think if the Commissioner of Official Languages did a further investigation survey, the rating would improve.

Under part V, language of work, again the rating fell from a B to a D. My understanding is that this decline is attributable to the results of the 2008 public service employee survey for linguistic minority employees. In particular, there was feedback by 13 anglophone survey respondents in the Quebec region. They indicated a need for improvement regarding the ability to communicate with their supervisor in the official language of their choice. Last fall we communicated directly with all senior management to ensure that obligations were well understood.

Last month we did a follow-up survey to the same community of 20 people and noted a significant improvement in communications with immediate supervisors. People were comfortable in doing that. However, we found another problem. Anglophones who wished to use English in work meetings were not comfortable. This was raised by three individuals.

We've spoken to our regional director in Quebec to implement a more broadly based plan so that person can reach out to these individuals and give me a report twice a year. I've also told him that the next time I go to Montreal I want to meet with the anglophone individuals in our regional office to have a discussion on language of work, how comfortable they are, and what else we can do.

I will now move on to part IV of the act, which deals with equal participation of English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. Here too, our rating fell from a "B" to a "D". Three variables come into play in terms of numbers and participation. First, the number of francophone employees in the National Capital Region exceeded workforce availability by 277 employees, and this number is in our favour. The same is true in the rest of Canada, excluding Quebec and the National Capital Region: in Canada, the number of francophone employees exceeded workplace availability by 56 employees.

The shortfall is in Quebec, where the target is at 13.4% for English-speaking employees. We stand at 6%. To bridge the gap, we have taken a number of steps and plan to take more. For example, I will personally write to the presidents of all anglophone universities in Quebec and to the community colleges, like John Abbott CEGEP, Marianopolis College, and Dawson College, to share with them our requirements as an employer so that they encourage their students to consider Industry Canada as a possible employer.

Employee turnover in our offices is not very high. We must, however, do our best to increase recruitment of anglophones in our Montreal offices. In addition, as I said, we are going to give the woman hired on as regional director for the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada a special mandate to encourage anglophones to apply for positions with us.

With respect to program management, our rating fell from an "A" to a "B". I have been told that it's—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Mr. Dicerni, I will give you one minute to wrap up.

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes.

Our rating fell from "A" to "B". I have been told that this is largely attributable to the fact that we do not have an integrated plan for the department. My colleague Bill James and I are in the process of developing that plan. I have seen a first draft of the plan, which should be completed in May.

Finally, let me now address part VII of the act, which addresses the vitality of Official Language Minority Communities. Industry Canada received a "B" in the report. We have put in place a number of initiatives, and will continue to do so to support the economic development of official language communities. The department has created a tool called the Official Languages Filter. This filter has also been adopted by several other departments and is used to verify programs and ensure that they take into account the needs and concerns of the communities.

I will stop here, because the minute you have given me is up.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you.

We will start the first round.

Ms. Zarac, you have seven minutes.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning and thank you for being here.

If I'm not mistaken, you are developing an action plan for part VII.

[Richard Dicerni]

It is a departmental plan for parts IV, V, VI and VII.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

This will be the first plan for part VII. In the past, you had a plan for 2010 to 2013 which did not take part VII into account.

Some witnesses we have heard from have indicated that they were not aware of their responsibilities under the Official Languages Act. Did you leave part VII out of your action plan because you are unaware of your responsibilities in this regard?

[Richard Dicerni]

No. The department has always had champions who are very familiar with the act, all the more so because we are also responsible for FedNor, which is responsible for economic development in Northern Ontario. In fact, minority language communities are well represented in that part of the province. We are very familiar with that. As regards the CALDECH decision, we know the program very well. We developed our Filter as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in CALDECH.

The absence of an integrated program for the entire department reflects a kind of tendency towards bureaucratization. The last time the Commissioner of Official Languages assessed our sector-based plans, we received good ratings. That is why we thought we were on the right track. Following his recent report, we concluded that our problem was the absence of a department-wide program. So we are developing one, and we will take part VII into account.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

When will you be tabling the action plan?

[Richard Dicerni]

In May.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

So it will be done in May.

[Richard Dicerni]

That is correct.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Could you please send a copy to the committee?

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

It will cover the period from 2010 to 2013, won't it?

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

We will eagerly await it.

It was your department's fifth evaluation.

[Richard Dicerni]

Pardon?

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

It was your department's fifth evaluation. Many departments received incredibly low ratings, like "E", and often their excuse was that it was their first evaluation. In your case, this was the fifth one. You had already received recommendations from the commissioner. Despite that, your rating dropped. What is that due to?

[Richard Dicerni]

I would say that it is due to a series of factors. The first factor is the integrated report. We received an "A" in the previous report. We submitted more or less the same thing, and we were told that we now needed an integrated report for the department. The evaluation criteria have become somewhat more rigorous.

As for the second factor, it's up to people at the commissioner's office to explain it. As regards employees, we received a very good rating in terms of the representation of francophones in the National Capital Region. However, there is a problem in Quebec. Our rating dropped from "B" to "D". The evaluation is rather harsh, but we accept it and plan to do better.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

One of the commissioner's recommendations dealt with the Filter. I would like you to explain exactly what the Filter is, and for you to tell us if you're going to take the commissioner's recommendation into account.

[Richard Dicerni]

As I said, our department developed the Filter and it was adopted by other departments. It is an analysis tool for determining how the concerns and perspectives of official language minority communities should be taken into account in programming.

In one of the programs that we developed, we gave schools recommissioned computers. In reviewing our Filter, we concluded that not enough was being done with official language communities. So we made some changes and we stepped up our involvement with these people. We have reviewed the department's programs to see where we could make some improvements. That is how we used what we call the Filter.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

You also mentioned that you worked in a number of sectors. I believe you said there were 29 sectors. I worked quickly, and I did not check all of your offers of employment, however when you look at the section entitled "skills required", bilingualism is never there. Wouldn't that be an important required skill?

[Richard Dicerni]

I don't look at offers of employment very often, but I will ask that question of my colleague, who is director of human resources. As I said, 60% of positions require competency. So perhaps my colleague can explain.