I asked some of those efficiency questions during labour management meetings with the deputy minister, and we didn't get any kind of satisfactory answers.
The two companies that have, to my knowledge, held the contracts for 1-800-O-Canada are Quantum and Gatestone. Quantum's call centre was located in Ottawa. Those workers were offered contracts during the sale of the contract. Some of them now work for the Government of Canada, so we've been able to speak to them.
We understand that the new company, Gatestone, is a corporation with bases in Phoenix, Arizona, and Canada. We also understand that the current workers at Gatestone who are providing services to 1-800-O-Canada are located in Toronto, and some workers may be in Montreal.
We've asked ourselves the same questions. We have no guarantee, with the way their contracts work, that somebody might be answering the phone. While they may have some workers working there, we don't know where all of them are.
We also know that they have had problems providing services in both languages. This was with Quantum. Gatestone is still a relatively new contract. Again, we don't have answers to those questions because we're not in a position to ask our employer those questions to get transparency. We've been reduced to having to file access to information requests to try to get some answers.
Access to official language services by a Government of Canada office in our call centres is much better. We know those clients are getting better service. It's a comment that we've had from the workers who were contracted out and are now internal. They can't believe the testing to ensure that somebody is really bilingual and able to provide the service. Those things didn't exist with the contracted-out companies. Again, that type of care is better established in-house in the Government of Canada.