Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 29th, 2020

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Is there anything else on that same theme that comes to mind, perhaps in terms of the health implications for employees? Is there anything we can do to deal with this in the short term?

You have about 30 seconds.

[Nathalie Laliberté]

I will send the question to Matthew Ball, the chief interpreter.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Could you answer that, sir?

[Matthew Ball, Director, Interpretation and Chief Interpreter, Translation Bureau, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

Sure. There are a few things that can significantly improve the situation for interpreters.

One that is possible for many people, but not everyone, is to have a hard-wired Ethernet connection. It's what I'm using today. It means that you're not dependent on Wi-Fi and don't have connectivity issues.

Another one that's really important and really easy for everyone is to send texts in advance. I'm sure all of the witnesses here today had prepared texts. Members of Parliament are often reading from texts. It's really helpful for the interpreters to receive those texts, especially when you plan to read them quickly, because they tell them basically what you're going to say and have the facts and figures. Interpreters are used to checking against verification, so they won't read them blindly, but they really help. Those are two of the most important things for us.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Perfect.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you. That's all the time we have.

Madame Normandin.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to ask Ms. Laliberté and Mr. Ball a few questions, if I may.

You said you were in need of more interpreters right now to ensure their health and safety. Since there are more English speakers than French speakers in the House of Commons, I imagine that puts greater pressure on interpreters who work from English to French.

It was recently announced in the House of Commons that cleaning product labels would not necessarily be translated into French because doing so could be a hindrance in the context of the crisis.

Does it worry you that the usual level of institutional bilingualism can't be maintained in light of the current circumstances?

[Nathalie Laliberté]

Thank you for your question.

All the interpreters who work for the Translation Bureau and Parliament are accredited by the Bureau. They are accredited in their mother tongue and in what we call their B language. That means they can all interpret from one language to the other. The Bureau is accustomed to the fact that the volume of work into French is always greater than into English, so we don't foresee any capacity issues in the near or even long term, in either language. We have significant capacity in both official languages.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Very well.

In the circumstances, are more people working in their other language, in other words, going from their B language to their A language?

[Nathalie Laliberté]

I don't think so because we have strong capacity in both official languages. Some interpreters are quite comfortable working in either language, while others are less so, be they Translation Bureau employees or freelancers. No one is forced to work in a language they aren't comfortable in, particularly in Parliament, whose proceedings are broadcast. We've never had a problem in that regard, and we don't anticipate one in the near future.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I'd like to know how it works when interpreters advise you of problems they experience in their day-to-day work. How and to what extent do you receive feedback? Have you seen an increase in the number of requests, complaints and grievances?

[Nathalie Laliberté]

Thank you for your question.

We work closely with our interpretation teams. After every test, after every assignment, interpreters provide a report. We also work closely with the union. We meet with union representatives twice a week, and we discuss the various challenges and issues that we can work on. We manage to find solutions to most of the concerns that are brought to our attention. We've installed plexiglass in some of the interpretation booths, and earlier this week, some committee rooms were equipped with plexiglass as well. We work closely with the interpreters, and we always strive to find a way to resolve their issues. Of course, their job isn't easy given their difficult working conditions, and yet, despite all that, they show up for work every day and do an outstanding job.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Laliberté.

Now I have a few practical questions for Mr. Weigelt and Mr. Moseley.

We are trying to set up a virtual Parliament, so we need to re-create some of the principles of the physical Parliament.

Do your platforms offer the capability to raise your hand, similar to a classroom? In actual Parliament, the Speaker or chair chooses who to give the floor to. How could that be re-created on your platforms? Is it possible to establish an order to identify who raised their hand first? Do your platforms have a way to keep track of time, so we knew how much time we had used and how much we had left?

[Harry Moseley]

As you can see, I raised my hand.

Sorry, I didn't address you, Madam Chair. My apologies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That's okay. Go ahead.

[Harry Moseley]

Sorry. I'm not used to these normal proceedings.

Madam Chair, you can see I raised my hand. We already have that capability built into our platform. I can lower my hand.

With respect to timing, we have a time clock that shows the duration of the meeting. If you were interested in a timing feature, for example if I have 10 minutes to speak, I could have the system it count down, that is something I would be happy to take back to our product people to see if we can get that into the platform for you.

We have a practice at Zoom of listening to our clients. If that's a feature that would be helpful for the Canadian House of Commons to use our platform, then we will evaluate that and I can come back to you by the end of this week at the latest.

[John Weigelt]

Within the team's platform you have the capability also to raise your hand to get the attention of the Speaker. Much like the House of Commons has provided guidance around how to best leverage video conferencing, we also recommend that the chat stream form part of that interaction, and thus the ability to then share thoughts. Sometimes people don't always watch the raise-the-hand signal.

We also have a timer to time people, or to see how much time is left in the meeting or how long people have spoken. I think those things are part of that.

When we deployed these solutions at the beginning, we deployed them in support of what we thought were generalized uses. As we built them out, we've heard from our customers, be they in the education sector or the health care sector, that they need tweaks to those particular toolsets. We've gone back to our engineers to make sure that those tweaks come in.

You saw those tweaks rolling out April 21. You'll see over the next few weeks you'll get an increasing number of features. That's the power of cloud services.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you. That's all the time we have.

Ms. Blaney, please.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you. I thank all the witnesses for being here today. I appreciate your testimony so much.

I'm first going to ask my questions of the Translation Bureau. I understand that this kind of remote assembly can be dangerous to interpreters because the sound quality is so bad. I'd just like to get a little bit clearer about what those dangers actually are for the interpreters.

[Nathalie Laliberté]

The sound quality, with the Internet connection and the sound varying from participant to participant, means that interpreters have to increase the volume, have to listen harder and have to concentrate harder. There's an increased risk of acoustic shock, or, as I said, when they come back from their assignment they have headaches, earaches and extreme fatigue. It makes it very difficult for them.

Their hearing is, really, how they work, so any damage to their hearing will mean that they will no longer be able to work. We have to be very careful with respect to protecting their health and safety. It's really a matter of the sound, playing with the volume and making sure they understand.

They're very dedicated. They will do their utmost to deliver the service, sometimes to the detriment of their own hearing.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Have there been any increased injury or fatigue incident reports during the past month since Parliament committees have started, and now that the entire House is meeting virtually? If there have been, could you supply this committee with some numbers?

[Nathalie Laliberté]

There have been, yes, but we will have to come back to the committee with the exact number.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Okay, thank you so much.

I would like to take this opportunity to speak with Microsoft for a quick second.

The witness from Zoom talked earlier about where information is stored. He said that all of the conferencing information from here would be stored in Canada. Where is your information stored when it comes to things that are happening in Canada, and specifically in the House of Commons?

[John Weigelt]

We commit to storing information in our data centres in Toronto and Quebec City, and those data centres are connected with fibre optic cable that runs within the country. We feel that is the differentiator for our services.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Okay. I have another question.

Of course, what makes Canada specifically wonderful and unique is the fact that we have two official languages. It is an obligation of Parliament to always be representative of those languages. As a person who's only an English speaker, I think it's so important that, as we go through this, we protect and respect both of those languages.

One of the challenges is making sure that there are platforms with interpretation. Are there any plans to develop this particular part of your programming for a platform that would work for Parliament?