Evidence of meeting #154 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was residence.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions tie in with the questions asked by the Liberal and Conservative members.
I remember a Liberal member asking why you decided to give these 24 post offices a bilingual status rather than a unilingual French status. I think that you briefly answered the question.
The decision was made on August 19 of this year. However, the survey of the anglophone minority population ran until August 16. How could you review the results and make a decision in three days?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Federal institutions are free to decide how they conduct their consultations. I can't comment on the decisions made by Canada Post regarding the consultation process.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay.
Even though you said that Canada Post made the decision, I'll ask another question on the same topic. Could you please send the results of this survey to the committee?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Again, this is a matter for the federal institution. Federal institutions must implement the regulations.
To find out about the methods used to conduct the surveys and the results of these surveys, you need to ask the institution in question.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Was this decision made before August 19, and was this survey sent out to provide further justification for the new bilingual status of these offices?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Could you repeat the question?
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Was this decision made before August 19, and was this survey sent out to provide further justification for the new bilingual status of these offices?
Director, Regulations and Policy, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Canada Post's survey sought to consult the official language minority community in order to inform its choice regarding the bilingual offices in the greater Montreal area.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
I'll change the subject and continue along the same lines as my colleague.
Canada Post advertised jobs that didn't require knowledge of French, even though the positions were posted in Quebec.
In your opinion, is it appropriate for Quebec francophones not to have access to postal services in the language of their choice?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
If I understand correctly, the question is about Canada Post employees. Again, that's a question for Canada Post.
What I can offer as a general explanation is that a bilingual federal office does not require all staff in that office to be bilingual. However, all services must be offered to the public in both official languages. An institution can organize its operations in various ways, including through recruitment and language training, to ensure that office staff have sufficient bilingual capacity to meet its obligations to serve the public in both languages.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
All right.
I have another question, which may be more relevant.
Initially, it was declared that these job offers complied with the requirements of the Official Languages Act, but shortly thereafter, the requirement for Quebec letter carriers be able to speak French was reinstated.
Who oversees the application of the Official Languages Act at Canada Post? I think you said it was Treasury Board. It's clear to me that this is a matter for Treasury Board.
Is Treasury Board involved in the process to ensure compliance with the Official Languages Act?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Treasury Board requires federal institutions to report to it on a biannual basis. We monitor, but institutions are free to manage their bilingual capacity. That means—unfortunately—that I can't answer the question about letter carriers.
Conservative
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the officials from both departments.
I want to take a bit of a step back.
Did Canada Post take this initiative on their own, or were they mandated by regulations to do that?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Canada Post was mandated to undertake the consultations in order to determine which location would best suit the community in terms of the additional offer of bilingual services.
Liberal
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
That's part of the official languages regulations.
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
The institutions must apply the regulations.
The Treasury Board Secretariat assists the institutions in applying the regulations. We communicate with the institutions in order to publish the list of 10,000 federal offices, once the linguistic designation is complete.
Liberal
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
It's all of them. It's departments, agencies, Crown corporations and privatized entities such as Air Canada, for example. They all fall under the regulations.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Great.
As a result of those regulations, there is a consultation process. One of the elements of that process is census data, the way I understand it.
Aside from census data, can you tell me what other data elements go into this consultation process, and can you give me the key steps in that process?
Executive Director, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
Certainly the census data are the key demographic data that are used, but for certain services—and I'll pass it on to my colleague—the institution has to conduct special service because of the demographic data. For example, when you're serving the travelling public, looking at the composition of the area around an airport or a train station doesn't really help you. You need to do a survey of the people who are travelling and going through the airport to determine whether they need services in one or both languages. I'll ask Annie to complement that.
Director, Regulations and Policy, Official Languages Centre of Excellence, Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board Secretariat
In the case of this survey, Canada Post established a number of post offices in a designated geographic region. Based on that number, following the regulations, now they have to consult the linguistic minority community to establish the percentage relevant to the percentage of that minority community and identify x number of offices that will be designated bilingual. That survey was to help. According to the regulations, that's part of one of the steps that they need to complete this study.
It's the same thing for all institutions under that.
