Official Languages Committee on May 9th, 2013

[Ghislaine Charlebois]

No.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Here is my next question.

I'm reciting it from the English.

“I will continue to use my authority to intervene before the courts when necessary.” Are there not costs related to that?

[Graham Fraser]

Yes, there are.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

And those would be in the estimates as well.

[Graham Fraser]

They are an estimate in the estimates that are included in the protection as opposed to the promotion category for our expenses.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Who would incur those costs? Would the Department of Justice help you, or would you have to hire outside consultants?

[Graham Fraser]

It depends on the case. One of the reasons we have been able to attract and to keep such talented lawyers is that we are able to offer them the opportunity to appear in court. That's sometimes larger—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So you may do it in-house with the lawyers that work for the department?

[Graham Fraser]

That's right. Our lawyers are not Justice lawyers for exactly that reason, because when they appear in court, if we are taking a federal institution to court, they are appearing with Justice lawyers representing the other side. It's very important that we are able to hire our own lawyers to work for us.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So you have to keep them busy.

[Graham Fraser]

There are occasions when we seek an outside legal opinion, if we need an expert opinion.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

So all that would be costed in your estimates?

[Graham Fraser]

That's right.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I'll go straight to cost. I think Monsieur Gourde alluded to it, but you went from $22 million to $20 million in 2013, and if I subtract the moving costs, you will probably be around the same number as last year.

If you were able to cut your budget by 10%, why not another 10% for this year?

[Graham Fraser]

We went through a process, quite carefully, of hiring IBM to do an A-base review. They identified certain areas where they felt we were top-heavy as an organization, and we streamlined certain parts of the structure of the organization. I think we have been able to absorb some of the costs we've had to undertake, such as the upgrading of our technology system, by the careful management of those costs, and to eliminate some positions by not replacing people when they retired or moved on.

I think at this point, if we were to take another cut of the kind that you mentioned, it would begin to have a direct impact on our ability to serve complainants.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay. That's what I wanted to know.

There's no money in the budget for programs. None of this money is for programs that are given to organizations.

[Graham Fraser]

No. We have no statutory ability to write cheques to any organization.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay.

I have another question on the complaints. Again, I'm taking this from your presentation. You had 415 complaints last year, from 2012-13, and you said, “As of March 31, 2013, only 69 of these files were still active”.

You didn't disclose how many were actually opened in this fiscal year. Or is that the same fiscal—?

[Graham Fraser]

That is the same. That 469 that you're referring to is basically the backlog. By Ghislaine mobilizing her branch and investing a great deal of effort, we were able to reduce that backlog of 469 down to 69.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

What would be the normal complaint number in a year, if that's a fair question?

[Graham Fraser]

It's a bit lower this year than it has been in the past, but it has generally fluctuated between 600 and 1,000 complaints. We don't have a clear explanation as to why there's been a slight decline in the number of complaints.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Are there more complaints from English-speaking people or French-speaking people?

[Graham Fraser]

French-speaking people.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Is that because they can't get the service in French?

[Graham Fraser]

That's right. Although, there has been a decline in the number of what we call part IV complaints, the service to the public complaints.