Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 3rd, 2018

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Okay, but you certainly have a better understanding. The other day we heard about a conference that takes place in northern Quebec. If you were to do that, how would that work for us? Let's put it that way, in the sense—

[Malcolm Williams]

You would have interpreters in separate booths, soundproofed, listening to the speaker who is speaking in Cree, for example. The person in the English booth would interpret into English, and then the person in the French booth would go from English to French.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Okay. For those going to English, it would be straight into English, if English were the relay language.

[Malcolm Williams]

That's right.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

I assume that English is a popular relay language around the world. Is that correct?

[Malcolm Williams]

It would be number one.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

It would be the number one language, primarily. Would French be considered a relay language, or we're just duplicating...?

[Malcolm Williams]

French, yes, certainly in Europe, and German as well, in Europe.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

The qualifications for interpreters are something very important—

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

You have five seconds.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

I want to say thank you to all the guests who are joining us by video conference. It was nice to speak to you. Thanks for the pen.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

I had some similar questions, so maybe Mr. Simms will get his answer. You never know.

Mr. Williams, I might have missed this, but how many interpreters belong to your various constituent associations? I don't know if you mentioned that.

[Malcolm Williams]

It varies. I can give you some total numbers. The B.C. association has 400 members, the Ontario association has 700, and New Brunswick has 250. I would say that between a fifth and a quarter of those would be interpreters of various kinds.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay. This is where I get to my colleague's potential question in terms of the qualifications.

You did mention some of the qualifications in terms of the certification. You mentioned that it's generally a degree and two years or five years of experience.

[Malcolm Williams]

That's right.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

How is that experience generally gathered and what other qualifications might there be that are generally expected?

[Malcolm Williams]

Normally, for the on dossier certification process, we would expect candidates to submit a log of their work over the target number of years: where you did do your—

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

It's about the types of work as well.

[Malcolm Williams]

Yes.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

In order to do some of the work that is expected of your associations, they obviously have to gain experience in other ways. What's typical?

[Malcolm Williams]

They'd have to indicate what kinds of assignments they were involved in. For the community interpreter, for example, I gave that long list. There are medical visits and visits by social workers.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay. That was actually the type of work that would be required to get the experience, not just what they do—

[Malcolm Williams]

That's right, absolutely.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay—