Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We felt it appropriate to provide you with a brief overview of the current Action Plan for Official Languages. To this end, we submitted a written presentation this morning—I believe you all have a copy. With the indulgence of the committee, before answering your questions, we would like to quickly walk you through the presentation to bring you up-to-date with the current situation regarding the action plan. I appreciate that you all have a degree of familiarity with the action plan, but I am not sure whether everybody has the same level of knowledge and understanding.
Page two provides an overview of the five-year action plan launched in 2003 covering the period 2003 to 2008. It has three priority streams: education, community development and exemplary public service. A fourth component, the language industry, was added to these three priority streams. Accountability and coordination measures for the action plan are the responsibility of the Official Languages Secretariat which is now under the auspices of the section of Canadian Heritage for which I am responsible.
On the next page of the presentation, you will see a list of the 10 federal institutions that were the most involved in the initial action plan. It should be noted that Industry Canada also includes the four regional development agencies and the National Research Council, all of which were primarily involved in the fourth stream, the language industry. In addition, the Official Languages Secretariat was transferred from the Privy Council Office to Canadian Heritage on April 1, 2006.
The next slide provides a breakdown of the proposed funding for the four priority streams. More than $380 million over five years were earmarked for education; around $270 million over five years for community development; $64 million for an exemplary public service; and $20 million for the language industry. In addition, $16 million over five years were set aside for accountability and coordination measures, for a total of $751 million. Supplementary funding was allocated between 2005 and 2007, including $12 million over three years for the Enabling Fund for Language Minority Communities, bringing the total amount invested in this fund to $36 million. Ten point six million dollars in supplementary funding was also provided for health and $12 million for the Canada School of Public Service, bringing the grand total to $810 million.
Page five provides you with an overview of the main findings of the mid-term report published in 2005. The report focused on the first two years of the action plan and its objective was to determine the status of the various initiatives that had been planned; it was not, however, a formal evaluation of these initiatives or indeed of any programs that were part of the action plan.
The main findings of the report related to expenditure that had been undertaken by that date. At that time, $187.5 million had been spent out of a total envelope of $751 million. The report also observed that the various departments had set up infrastructures, thus getting the ball rolling for future program implementations. However, as is often noted when new programs are launched, a certain degree of foot-dragging and inertia had to be overcome. In spite of a fairly slow start, the mid-term report observed that the ground was set for the process to speed up. The foundations were laid to allow full implementation of programming and expenditure over the remaining three years.
The mid-term report also noted progress such as improved dialogue between federal institutions and their partners—the provinces, the communities, and other official language stakeholders—as well as significant advances in several areas including early childhood, justice, health and immigration.
As is the case with any initiative, progress is faster in some areas than in others. The mid-term report showed a positive impact on the use of both official languages in the federal public service, although shortcomings still exist with regard to public servants' knowledge of departmental responsibilities under the Official Languages Act. There also remains work to be done regarding language training for public servants. The report also highlights the creation of the Language Industry Association and the construction of the Language Technologies Research Centre, inaugurated in May 2006.
In general, feedback from both the anglophone and francophone communities was positive at the time of the mid-term report. Nevertheless, communities remain concerned about the length of time needed to approve funding and the red tape with which they are confronted. I will return to this issue a little later.
In 2005, a horizontal results-based management and accountability framework for the entire Official Languages Program was developed. Further information on this framework can be found in page seven.
The framework is essentially a means of coordinating all government action in the field of official languages, particularly that which is related to the action plan. It promotes accountability, and allows us both to measure the results that have been achieved with the additional funding and to monitor the overall progress made by the government in official languages.
When the framework was launched, it was heralded as a sterling example of multi-departmental, multi-program horizontal coordination. It has maintained its reputation amongst our central agencies to this day. Our primary objective is to gather information on how the programs and activities stemming from the action plan are performing in order to be able to produce the indicators provided for in the management framework.
On page 8 you will find a breakdown of the $810-million budget, showing planned and actual expenditure for the key departments over the five years. I would take this opportunity to point out that although total expenditure was expected to stand at $611 million by 2006-2007, only $601 million had actually been spent. This gives a 1.6% disparity over four years, perfectly within the standard parameters for public financial management.
I am now going to ask Hubert Lussier to give you some more information on those elements of the Action Plan for Official Languages that specifically relate to Canadian Heritage programs.
