Official Languages committee  Yes, but I do not know the exact date we had asked them to respond by or whether there was a deadline. Before I answer that, I would like to give those who have yet to respond one last chance.

Official Languages committee  Allow me to explain that. I completely agree with you. I drew a distinction between the activities that fall within our mandate, the responsibility of our department, and the activities that fall within the mandate of other departments. The institution responsible for immigratio

Official Languages committee  In a moment, I will ask Ms. Dubé to answer your question on the practices in place before. But first, with respect to the consultations, as I said in my presentation, I plan to hold an annual dialogue with official language minority communities, as some other departments have do

Official Languages committee  No. When they pass the exam, they should be able to provide services in French or in English.

Official Languages committee  Yes we do. The last time department officials appeared before your committee, one of your colleagues mentioned the fact that there had been complaints regarding five of our missions abroad. Shortcomings were noted with respect to service delivery in French. We took those complain

Official Languages committee  I believe that refers to the report of the official languages commissioner, which talked about the participation of English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians.

Official Languages committee  I would like to respond, if I may. As the commissioner points out in his report, there are deficiencies. This is not the first time we realized we had to do something about linguistic minorities. The department has done a great deal to promote the francophonie. We have formed re

Official Languages committee  Yes, I am going to give you an answer.

Official Languages committee  I am going to give you some figures from September 30, 2010, because that is the most recent data we have. There were 1,177 Canadian employees working abroad. Of those, 85% met the requirements of the linguistic profile for their pool of positions, and 14.9% did not. The 14.9% wa

Official Languages committee  We received an E, so we know we have weaknesses. But the report did acknowledge that we have also done a few things well.

Official Languages committee  The best I can do is reiterate what I have already said. First of all, we will see where we are at in a year. Clearly, the fact that the government is accountable to Parliament is a key mechanism. That is the whole purpose of this committee's very existence. We will be back here

Official Languages committee  It is hard for me to answer that. As I told you, I have not been at the department long, less than a year. This report is a big concern for me. I am talking to employees for their suggestions on how to improve the situation.

Official Languages committee  That is not really what I said. The commissioner's report does nevertheless include some positive comments about the department's performance. But this is the first time the commissioner has ever done this kind of evaluation of DFAIT. And since this is the first time, we are exam

Official Languages committee  I will try. The way I see it, official languages is an area that requires leadership and the use of every possible tool, such as legislation—

Official Languages committee  Theoretically, the supervisor is supposed to be able to understand it, and theoretically, the employee has the right to use the language of their choice.