Government Operations Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[Maria Barrados]

It is my experience that an effort is being made to make all services available in both languages. The Public Service Commission of Canada is in charge of language proficiency tests. We are very concerned about the success and pass rate of those tests. In addition, the tests have been changed. A major issue we must address is modernizing the way those tests are administered. All those efforts show a true commitment.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Thank you, Madam Barrados. Thank you, Alexandre.

Brian Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for attending today. I appreciate it very much.

I was reading that you have a political activities self-assessment tool. I'm just wondering how many pages it was or how many questions it has.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

I couldn't give you the exact number of questions or even the number of pages. It's web-enabled, so it works through a series of questions and sub-questions. Depending on how you answer, some questions will lead you to others.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

So it's possibly 20 to 40 questions?

[Hélène Laurendeau]

Yes, it's something along those lines.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Are there lots of tools like that available in the public service?

[Hélène Laurendeau]

Do you mean for political activities?

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

No, I'm thinking of relocation assessment tools, and sexual harassment assessment tools. I know that some private corporations have those kinds of forms and a lot of different questionnaires.

[Hélène Laurendeau]

That's a good question.

As far as I know, for the Public Service Commission, that's the only type of tool we have of that nature. There might be others elsewhere, but they're under the responsibility of other departments.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Okay. Thank you.

You also mentioned there is a breakdown to reflect the representation of Canadians in the public service.

Does that mean that...? For instance, I'm from northern Alberta and, frankly, I don't know of many federal government employees there. In fact, I probably could name five or six employees I've seen in 186,000 square kilometres in northern Alberta, in my constituency.

Since we're 10% of the population in Alberta, would that be reflected in the public service as 10% of the public service?

[Maria Barrados]

We actually do have a breakdown in the report. We have a map and the number of applications and the number of positions by province. So we have that information.

I must say, though, that Alberta is one of the areas where we've had more challenges with bringing people in, because of your very hot labour market. It's a very competitive labour market.

But that information is all in the report.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Would the ratio be anywhere close to being reflective of the population?

[Maria Barrados]

I think we're pretty well aligned, but I'll do the calculations for you and get back to you.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm just curious about this. Since most of my constituents are from Newfoundland, would it be fair to say they would be reflected adequately in Fisheries there? There seem to be a lot more federal government employees in a place like Newfoundland and Labrador. Would that be fair to say?

[Maria Barrados]

Well, you have two things there, right? First, the federal government has allocated the jobs in something that reflects the population. I have a chart that gives me the number of federal public servants in each region and the number of staffing activities.

What I don't have is whether that number of jobs is reflective of the population of the province.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Do you suppose I could get that—

[Maria Barrados]

Yes, I'll get that for you.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

—calculated out per province? And could you get that to the chair, if you don't mind.

[Maria Barrados]

Sure. I will.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Mr. Chair, since I'm not a normal committee member, I would appreciate that being forwarded to my office.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Absolutely.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm also curious to know if you do audits of efficiency and costs compared with other countries' public services, such as other Commonwealth countries?

[Maria Barrados]

We have actually tried to do comparisons of the staffing processes and we tend to use, as a proxy, time to staff. So we will do comparisons on time to staff, and that gives an indication of how long it costs. That's not been terribly successful. The reason for that is there are a lot of differences, even though we're Commonwealth countries, that make it not a meaningful comparison.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I do understand that, but to be fair, are we high or low on that comparison level in a general sense? In Canada where do we fit with respect to our cost in the public service and our efficiency?

I have one final question, and I know the chair's going to cut me off if I don't get that question in beforehand—