Official Languages committee  There was no francophone deputy minister.

Official Languages committee  There are two possibilities: either people who are in contact with the public are not sufficiently aware of their obligations under the act, or there is a sort of carelessness or negligence. Neither of these are acceptable. That's what I said earlier to the member. There are cert

Official Languages committee  As I explained, we must first clearly pinpoint the obligations themselves, that is, in which offices and for which positions we must ensure that people understand exactly what their responsibilities are, and ascertain that they have the qualifications to carry them out. We must a

Official Languages committee  No.

Official Languages committee  That encouragement is something I reaffirmed in messages forwarded to departmental employees as soon as I arrived, after the commissioner had tabled his report. Currently, we are in a unique and quite favourable situation at Natural Resources Canada because both the minister and

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  First of all, when I arrived, we already had a draft of the plan under way before the commissioner published his report. We had, I believe, an initial executive committee meeting in November or following the tabling of the commissioner's report. At that time, we had asked that th

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  I will explain why the plan may look like a list. One of the first things that I requested was something that resulted from our initial conversation. We had talked, in particular, about promotion and encouragement. I said that there were some things that we absolutely had to do f

Official Languages committee  Yes and no, considering that the individuals in these positions must have the linguistic proficiency. This is more about enabling others to eventually have access to these positions. For example, in Yellowknife, if an individual were able to meet a requirement with a little bit o

Official Languages committee  The survey showed us where we need to improve. It provided us with a benchmark that indicates where we are coming from. Currently, the percentage of individuals who are comfortable writing memos in their language, particularly among francophones, is at a certain level. I forget w

Official Languages committee  I would like to be able to say yes. We have 20 offices or locations in Canada where we must provide services in both languages, including Yellowknife.

Official Languages committee  Twenty out of 50. Services are provided in all of these offices, with the exception of Yellowknife and Corner Brook. We need to remedy the situation in Yellowknife. You have put your finger on one of the offices where we have a problem—

Official Languages committee  —that needs to be resolved.

Official Languages committee  It is important, we need to resolve the problem.