Official Languages committee  No.

Official Languages committee  You refer to the Olympic Games--

Official Languages committee  I'm a member of several different deputy minister committees, yes.

Official Languages committee  Yes, we do. I sit on the Senior Officials Committee chaired by the Clerk of the Privy Council which is responsible for succession planning, if you will, at the deputy minister and associate deputy minister levels. We have discussed official languages. Every time that official languages--

Official Languages committee  No, there are no reports. Often these discussions are intended to determine whether there is an issue that needs to be resolved and whether there are potential solutions. People attend the meetings, take notes, do the necessary follow-up and ensure that what needs to be done gets done.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. I will begin and Diane may want to add her own comments. I was very surprised to see that our rating was slightly better in the past. It was “C”. That is hardly nirvana, but it was slightly better than a “D”. I have to admit that this has always been a source of frustration.

Official Languages committee  I fully agree with you. Perhaps I could just review three or four points I mentioned in my opening statement. First of all, we will be much more closely connected to Anglophone organizations all across Quebec, not only in Montreal. There must be points of entry; that's my first point.

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. I fully agree with you. In my opinion, the challenge was that people were not necessarily aware. I am a Francophone from Quebec City. I didn't speak much English when I began working in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories, and there weren't many Francophones there.

Official Languages committee  That's right. I learned a lot, very quickly. You have to be ready to make the leap. I also want to point out that co-op programs lend themselves to young people's aspirations. It is possible to do a co-op internship in the department. We have a lot of co-op students. We are the largest user of co-op students from the University of Ottawa, as well as other institutions.

Official Languages committee  Yes. We have an agreement with the School of Public Service. Nine teachers, Francophones or Anglophones, are dedicated to us for training, whether it is for skills upgrading or to develop the second language. This year, we invested almost $5 million in language training, which is the most significant amount that has been invested in a number of years.

Official Languages committee  Perhaps I could draw a parallel, although it doesn't relate to official languages. In the case of visible minorities, we had certain challenges. Ms. Lorenzato and myself took the bull by the horns and now we have exceeded our goals. Personally, I can tell you that we are determined and firmly committed to this.

Official Languages committee  That's interesting. I was saying in my opening comments that in my department, we put a heavy emphasis on getting the fundamentals right, as they say in English. And here, we really are talking about the core business of the department. With the management team, I want us to be the best just about everywhere.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to be with you today as Deputy Minister of Public Works and Government Services, and to have this opportunity to convey my pride in our progress in meeting our official languages goals, and to describe our continuing efforts to improve our performance.

Public Accounts committee  Before I answer, Mr. Chair, I would like to clarify something my colleague from National Defence said earlier. Regarding the accountability of people who work on these files, we are not talking about a single person, but rather of a team of experts who get up in the morning, come to work and want to do a good job.

Public Accounts committee  I simply wanted to make that comment, which I did. I will now answer your question. We received a request from Sikorsky for an excusable delay, which we turned down. They sent us a second request and an explanation. We will consider it and apply penalties if need be.