Official Languages committee  I believe that there has been an improvement in the public service. Basically, we need to work on this issue every day. However, a strong message was sent a few years ago when it became clear that executives in all departments, in other words, all managers at the EX level, had to

Official Languages committee  Yes, I can certainly provide you with a summary of the discussion. I had asked Ms. Paquin, who is accompanying me today, to draft a summary. I can certainly provide you with the summary of the discussion with Mr. Fraser. I can check with Ms. d'Auray as to whether or not she has t

Official Languages committee  As I told you, I will do so providing that the minutes do in fact exist and that I can share them with you. These are not necessarily meetings that I personally called.

Official Languages committee  There are some generally informal meetings between the champions of the various departments. The Treasury Board secretary organizes a discussion to guide our activities and response to the official languages commissioner's report, particularly with respect to part VII of the Offi

Official Languages committee  Since I have been in this position, these are the meetings to which I was alluding. However, I have no statistics to give you for the past few years.

Official Languages committee  Ms. Paquin used to work in the Human Resources Branch.

Official Languages committee  In the days that followed the commissioner's report, he wrote me a letter stressing the importance that he was giving to this file. We then had a brief conversation. I assured him that I would be following up on the matter.

Official Languages committee  I will defer to the expert who is accompanying me.

Official Languages committee  As regards all employees at the department, 46% currently hold positions that are designated bilingual. Of the people in those positions designated bilingual, 98% meet the requirements of the position. The other 2% are made up of people who have been appointed under bilingual no

Official Languages committee  No, people who ultimately want access to training can have it, namely for scientific positions where there is not necessarily an interaction with the public. These people may well want access to training, be it for their work environment or their career opportunities. It is certa

Official Languages committee  I would agree with that. I would simply say that our obligations under the act are exactly the same as those of Canadian Heritage. I was referring to a previous impression, namely that we did not necessarily have the same responsibilities under part VII. I do believe, nevertheles

Official Languages committee  When you say public accounts, do you mean the departmental financial statements?

Official Languages committee  That would depend on the way that the $950,000 expenditure that I referred to earlier is accounted for. Obviously, this expenditure must be accounted for in the financial statements. I cannot tell you point-blank under which heading this figure would go. However, I can check on t

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.

Official Languages committee  That is a good question for which I do not have a good answer. Please allow me to deal with the matter in the future.