Evidence of meeting #75 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was young.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Rachel Wernick  Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
Christopher Bates  Director, Trades and Apprenticeship, Department of Employment and Social Development
Monika Bertrand  Director General, Employment Program Policy and Design Directorate, Department of Employment and Social Development
Benoit Tessier  Executive Director, Employer Liaison Services, Department of Employment and Social Development
Patrick Borbey  President, Public Service Commission
Roxanne Poitras  Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission
Paula Isaak  Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

It's great to have a name and a face attached to a success story, so I'd just like to congratulate Ms. Poitras for the determination and persistence to craft a career path that seems to be working for her.

Do you self-assign in your youth ambassadorial duties, or are you called or assigned to visit different groups?

5:25 p.m.

Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission

Roxanne Poitras

Not as of yet. I've only dealt with the students and youth from the PSC. I do take part in the YPN, the young professionals network of the NCR. We have meetings and events with all the networks together, but I've never really been called upon.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Is there some potential in this area?

5:25 p.m.

Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission

Roxanne Poitras

I believe so.

5:25 p.m.

President, Public Service Commission

Patrick Borbey

Ms. Poitras is too modest. Part of her role is also to advise us on how we can make sure that our programs are working well for young Canadians. We're looking for her to play a leadership role within the Public Service Commission, but also to have a broader impact. Certainly we're looking forward to working with Roxanne in that capacity.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON

Thank you very much.

Congratulations.

5:25 p.m.

Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bryan May

Thank you.

MP Fortier, you have approximately two and a half minutes.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

Thank you.

I had the privilege of being the president of the Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française, 20 years ago. Today, I still meet people from the federation, several of whom are young francophones who live in minority communities and want to work in the public service. They want to express themselves in French in their workplace, but they often find themselves in strictly anglophone environments.

How do you deal with the fact that young francophones work in a context where English is often the language used, when they may have trouble working in that language?

5:25 p.m.

Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission

Roxanne Poitras

I have never really worked with students who were strictly English-speaking or French-speaking.

At the commission, almost all of the students can express themselves in both languages. For certain positions, they are required to be able to at least speak the other official language. According to my experience...

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

So, there are positions that require that you be able to express yourself in both official languages. Tell me about this, just so that I can gain a better understanding of that situation.

5:25 p.m.

Youth Engagement Ambassador, Public Service Commission

Roxanne Poitras

These positions are generally related to client service.

I had the opportunity of taking part in the recruitment of several students for what the commission calls the “student cloud”. These students were not called upon to work on a particular project, and so had to be quite multi-skilled. During one week, they would help one team, then come back and go and work with another team. They were expected to be somewhat bilingual in order to meet the needs of the organization at that time.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

Mr. Borbey, did you want to add something?

5:25 p.m.

President, Public Service Commission

Patrick Borbey

Yes. In the national capital region, the majority of positions are bilingual. That is also the case in the bilingual regions.

Federally, 43% of positions are designated bilingual. You may know that Mr. Mendelsohn and I are the authors of a report that was published recently, on the use of both official languages in the federal workplace. I invite you to study this report. It contains several observations that support what you have been saying.

Certain departments are models. At the Public Service Commission, for instance, the use of French and English is very common. We begin sentences in one language and finish them in the other. In other departments, however, the situation is more problematic. We explained this in the report.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Mona Fortier Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

Fine. Thank you.

I am done, but I think that Ms. Sansoucy would like to ask a question.

I'll let you decide, Mr. Chair.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bryan May

Be very brief. You have 30 seconds.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC

I would like to take advantage of Ms. Isaak's presence to ask her to send the committee data on the number of young Inuit and young first nations people who take part in the various programs. I think it would really be interesting in the context of our study.

Was that brief enough?

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Bryan May

That was fantastic. Thank you.

Thank you very much for attending today. This is going to be a very exciting study. It's probably going to take us well into March to wrap it up. I feel very invigorated, given my experience yesterday at the Conference Board summit on this issue. I'm really looking forward to getting into it. Thank you for helping us kick off this study well.

Thank you to all my colleagues. Have a good weekend if you're leaving. If not, I will see you tomorrow.

The meeting is adjourned.