Madam Chair, members of the committee, good evening.
My name is Nathalie Laliberté, and I am vice-president of service to Parliament and interpretation at the Translation Bureau, within Public Services and Procurement Canada. With me today is my colleague, Matthew Ball, director of interpretation and chief interpreter.
I would like to thank you for this invitation to participate in your work concerning virtual sittings of Parliament.
The Translation Bureau is mandated to provide linguistic services for these sittings, and we are happy to share our views with the committee. I would like to specify, however, that our services do not cover technical support during the sittings.
As you know, under the Translation Bureau Act, we are responsible for providing services to both houses of Parliament and to federal departments and agencies in all matters related to the making and revising of translations from one language into another of documents, and to terminology and interpretation. We provide high-quality linguistic services in the two official languages, indigenous and foreign languages, and sign languages.
The Translation Bureau plays a vital role in implementing the Official Languages Act. This role makes the bureau a key player in communications with the public, the language of work in the public service, and the advancement of English and French in Canadian society.
Since 2017, we have followed a clear vision to guide our future as a centre of excellence in linguistic services for the Government of Canada. Under that vision, we launched major initiatives to increase quality control, modernize our business model and provide the most advanced language tools.
We expanded our capacity to provide services in indigenous languages, and we increased co-operation with the language industry in Canada. We introduced ways to better support our employees, deliver the training they need and take care of their mental health.
We revamped our recruitment processes and created partnerships to support the next generation of language professionals. For instance, we participate in the master of conference interpretation program at the University of Ottawa. We loan equipment and instructors to the university and, in return, we benefit from a pool of highly skilled new interpreters.
We are applying the same forward-looking approach as we adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since mid-March, as you've seen, we've continued to focus on carrying out our mandate in helping Parliament meet its responsibility concerning the interpretation of proceedings and the translation of documents. That being said, we have the same issue with reduced capacity as the rest of government.
Luckily for us, translation lends itself particularly well to telework, and we've been able to maintain our services while having our translators work from home. As for interpretation, which is the focus of our discussions today, the bureau has been providing this service since 1959. Through the years, we have been successfully maintaining our services through the dedication of our outstanding employees and freelancers.
In this period of pandemic, given the technical requirements of interpretation, interpreters must continue to work on site in Parliament. However, I can assure you that their health is a top priority, and we have carefully applied expert advice to protect them.
We have added portable interpretation booths and installed partitions in existing booths so that there is some separation between interpreters who share the same booth. Interpretation booths are disinfected twice a day. We've provided interpreters with disinfectant wipes so that they can disinfect equipment before and after each assignment. We have loaned tablets to interpreters so that they can consult background information in the booth, without having to handle printed documents. We have reduced the size of teams and applied physical distancing rules to prevent contact between interpreters. We've made parking spaces available to interpreters so that they do not have to use public transit. We're taking into account the circumstances of interpreters who have young children or who must stay at home for other reasons, and we're keeping the lines of communication open with the unions.
You will ask, can an interpreter work from home? We've started to explore this possibility, but remote interpretation poses major challenges.
We use the term “remote interpretation” when one or more participants are not in the same location as the interpreters. In recent years, the increased popularity and accessibility of video conferencing has led to an ever-growing demand for remote interpretation. In response to this demand, the Translation Bureau began conducting its own tests and studying international best practices. However, the sudden onset of the pandemic forced us to step up our efforts, and for the last few weeks we've been actively working on this matter in collaboration with the House administration.
We have determined that certain criteria must be met in order for remote interpretation to work. These include the following: All participants must wear a headset with a microphone to ensure clear sound quality; participants must appear via video conference so that the interpreter can see their facial expressions and clearly communicate the tone of their message; participants must strictly adhere to the rules for speaking and must wait their turn to speak; a technician must be in the room with the interpreters at all times to address any technical issues; the audio feed of the interpretation consoles must have limiters or compressors to prevent acoustic shock; interpreters must be able to do sound checks with the technician and participants before each meeting begins; and, as always, participants who plan to read written statements must provide them in advance to our interpreters.
These criteria are needed to establish the optimal conditions so that interpreters can provide high-quality services in a safe environment. Abiding by these criteria will not completely eliminate the risk of interpretation service interruptions due to the technology used by remote participants, but it will greatly reduce this risk and help ensure the best possible interpretation.
The criteria on sound quality are particularly important, since sound is the cornerstone of interpretation. For example, if the sound quality is poor, an interpreter may mix up the words “symptomatic” and “asymptomatic”, which completely changes the message. Furthermore, poor sound quality puts the interpreter at risk. In the last two years, several health and safety incidents have been reported involving sound issues during teleconferences and video conferences.
Regarding the human resources required to provide interpretation at virtual sittings, the Translation Bureau will augment its team of interpreters. Variation in sound quality means that interpreters have to concentrate harder, which means they have to work shorter shifts. This means that we need to assign more interpreters per sitting. However, we will make every effort to meet this need.
Madam Chair, members of the committee, our mission is clear: we are here to serve Parliament, and we are doing our best to respond to the call. We are committed to pursuing our collaboration with the House administration and all our partners to help ensure that a virtual Parliament runs smoothly.
The Translation Bureau is proud to be able to help Parliament continue its essential work during this crisis, and we are proud to help the Government of Canada share the information Canadians need to stay healthy and up to date on what is happening in English, French, American Sign Language and Quebec Sign Language.
I would like to specifically commend our official language and sign language interpreters for the incredible work they are doing every day at the various press conferences. This crisis has shone a spotlight on their excellent work, and we are grateful for their dedication.
To close, I would like to thank the interpreters at this meeting. In addition, thank you to all the employees who work behind the scenes to make important meetings like this one possible, despite the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in. I would like to extend a special thank you to our invaluable partners at the House multimedia service and the committees directorate. I am sure you appreciate their efforts and expertise as much as I do.
Lastly, thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for your attention and your interest in our services. Mr. Ball and I would be happy to answer your questions.