Official Languages committee  Yes. Our minister is certainly aware of the upcoming consultations. I think she is anxious to hear the results of the consultations and to make some decisions when the time comes.

Official Languages committee  Yes, definitely.

Official Languages committee  We're generally strengthening performance measurement and reporting of results across all our programs. The reason we are doing that is analytical. We are in the business of continuously improving our programs and services to Canadians, and the only way you can do that is when you measure and report on results, and when you collect the right data and you're able to analyze it.

Official Languages committee  These are very good questions. The one thing I would add is that we are focusing on our very small federal pot of money. I think that what we cannot forget is that the biggest amount is being invested by provinces and territories in literacy and essential skills. In our work with provinces and territories, there's strong collaboration, and we're investing almost $3 billion in provincial and territorial programs.

Official Languages committee  In terms of the provincial programs, the money that we are providing to provinces and territories is through transfer agreements, so the programs are provincial programs, and the provincial programs don't fall under the Official Languages Act. Having said that, in each agreement that we have, there are official language provisions, and the official language provisions in these agreements stipulate that a province or a territory will, in an area of significant demand, provide services in the chosen language of the client.

Official Languages committee  In the meantime, of course, we have our projects that are currently running. We also work by call for proposal or targeted solicitation. We will continuously provide funding for organizations to do innovative work, or to test innovative approaches for literacy and essential skills, to help scale up and introduce good approaches that have good results in other communities.

Official Languages committee  With the engagement in March, I would say that it would be the summer. It takes time, as we have internal processes, of course, to develop options and ideas and briefings, etc., but I would think that by the summer we would probably have a better idea of the next steps.

Official Languages committee  Consistent with what the department is embarking on, as I said, we agree with the recommendations. One of the complaints was about the department not having consulted or engaged with the community when the decision was taken. Going forward, our commitment is to actually have some engagement.

Official Languages committee  Okay.

Official Languages committee  I think in general there has been an effort to focus on results and delivery. I cannot tell you if it's a political or departmental decision, because I wasn't around at that time. In terms of the focus on results, I think it's sort of a general desire from, I suppose, politicians as well as bureaucrats.

Official Languages committee  Good afternoon and thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My colleague and I are pleased today to have the privilege of addressing the Standing Committee on Official Languages, especially on such an important topic as the development of skills in official language minority communities (OLMCs).

Human Resources committee  We don't agree on the shortcomings.

Human Resources committee  There were a couple of questions in there. I'll try to unpack that. In terms of the skills mismatch, we don't just have it for young people, of course; we have it for all Canadians, and that is one of the biggest challenges we are trying to tackle. In that respect, we are looking at better labour market information—not looking at degrees as much as competencies and skills that are required for the jobs of the future—and providing the right information to young people, and all Canadians, so they can make the right choices in terms of the training they need for the jobs that are available.

Human Resources committee  We are starting to do that more. We have introduced a follow-up survey. We are now tracking students in the sense that we want to know more about the summer work experience. We want to know more about the quality of the employment and we want to know more about whether they feel more prepared for a job.

Human Resources committee  Every five years there's a full evaluation of our programs. The youth employment strategy is delivered in collaboration with 10 other departments and agencies. The ESDC, our department, collects the SINs of youth who participate in the programs, which allows us to connect to CRA data, which allows us to follow their earnings and their reliance on passive income support.