Official Languages Committee on Feb. 5th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Welcome to the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. This is the third session we are holding on our limited study of the Official Languages Action Plan. Today, we are dealing with the public service.

Before introducing the witnesses, Mr. Nadeau has a point of order.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

You read my mind, Mr. Chairman.

I would just like to emphasize that since we cannot meet this morning with Ms. Barrados, the President of the Public Service Commission, for various reasons, I suggest to the committee that we meet with her during the first hour of next Tuesday's meeting, as the agenda is already set for Thursday. During the first hour, we would hear from Ms. Barrados and her officials from the Public Service Commission, and during the second hour, we would begin to study the draft report.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau. That is not a point of order, but I will keep that in mind. We could consult the members of the steering committee.

I would like to get back to our witnesses. Three groups are appearing this morning.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chairman, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Godin, is it truly a point of order?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Whether or not it is a point of order, an issue of information or of privilege is not important. To continue where Mr. Nadeau left off, it is all well and good to say we will consult, but we have to make a decision. I also want to hear from Ms. Barrados.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We can invite Ms. Barrados for the first hour next Tuesday.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will now go to our witnesses' presentations. As we have several, I will allow them to introduce themselves as they take the floor. They could then talk to us about their organizations. It would be enlightening for us.

Without further ado, we will begin with the Canada Public Service Agency, which is represented by Ms. Ellis and Mr. Collins.

[Karen Ellis, Senior Vice-President, Workforce and Workplace Renewal, Canada Public Service Agency]

Good morning and thank you very much. I am a senior vice-president with the Canada Public Service Agency and I head the Workforce and Workplace Renewal Sector. I am very pleased to be here to discuss some of the committee's key areas of interest related to the Action Plan for Official Languages.

Before we get started, I would like to thank you for the continued interest you have taken in official languages. I would also like to set the context for our discussion with a brief description of our role as a central agency.

First, it's important to remember that our work is shaped by the new regime for managing human resources that was launched in 2003 and that continues to take shape across the public service. This change occurred when Parliament adopted the Public Service Modernization Act.

Under this new regime, deputy heads and line managers now have primary responsibility and more flexibility for managing their human resources. This includes responsibility for recruitment, staffing, employment equity, HR planning and, of course, official languages.

When looking at official languages, for example, this means that each deputy head is responsible for ensuring that his or her institution respects all its commitments and obligations under the Official Languages Act. In practice, this means that when gaps in service are identified by the media and others—as happened recently to the RCMP and Air Canada—it falls to the deputy head or the CEO to address the situation in a manner that is consistent with the act. Meanwhile, the Official Languages Commissioner has the authority to investigate any complaints that are made.

At the agency, we are responsible for overseeing the overall application of the Official Languages Act through various monitoring and audit activities. Specifically, we are responsible for parts IV, V, and VI of the act. These deal with communications with and services to the public, language of work, and the management of human resources.

One of our key roles is supporting federal institutions in meeting their obligations under the act. We do this by sharing best practices, and providing tools and various communications products. We also support networks for official languages, as well as their many champions. All this happens in close collaboration with a number of partners, including our colleagues at Canadian Heritage and the Canada School of Public Service.

Additionally, our work at the agency is shaped by the increasingly complex and interconnected world we live in. As you know, the public service, like all employers, is facing a number of demographic challenges and a highly competitive labour market.

These pressures have led the Clerk of the Privy Council, who is also the head of the public service, to make renewal a top priority. This has given our work at the agency a new focus and energy.

Allow me to briefly describe the four priorities of renewal.

The first one is integrated planning. Integrated planning links business and human resources planning and is the foundation and powerhouse of renewal. It is very much about enabling the full use of the flexibilities under the Public Service Modernization Act.

It is also about facilitating the achievement of all HR objectives, including those related to official languages, by ensuring that they are part of the planning process right from the beginning.

The second priority is recruitment, which is about ensuring that we renew and sustain capacity at all levels, and that we continue attracting more young bilingual Canadians to the public service.

We also need to ensure that employees have a better understanding of the requirements of designated bilingual positions. This way they can identify the language training they need as soon as they enter the public service and take an active role in their own career development.

The third priority is employee development. This is a commitment to fostering leadership at all levels and ensuring that employees have meaningful work to do in a supportive environment. And by supportive, I'm talking about making sure we create an environment in which employees can develop their language skills before they get a bilingual job, not after.

And finally, our last priority is called enabling infrastructure.

We are working hard to put the right systems and processes in place to ensure effective planning, recruitment, and development--all of the things that I've just spoken about.

What I've just described is the context we operate in, our playing field, if you will.

It is characterized by an ever-changing environment where deputy heads have substantial authority to manage their people.

At the end of the day, our role is to provide institutions subject to the act the support they need to fulfil their responsibilities for official languages.

In carrying out this mandate, we are moving away from an approach based on rules and processes to one rooted in the values of respect, inclusiveness and fairness.

We have been working to transform the attitudes and behaviours of public servants to create a workplace that is more conducive to the use of both official languages. We have also been encouraging managers to work with their employees to ensure that bilingualism is further rooted in the workplace.

Turning now to the action plan, it was launched in 2003 with funding of $751 million spread out over five years.

The agency has received $12 million so far, which we have used to strengthen the agency's role as a centre of excellence for official languages. Among other things, we have been upgrading our capacity to develop official language policies to give clear direction to institutions; simplifying and modernizing policy instruments to clarify the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of institutions and focusing on results; supporting institutions by sharing good practices, and designing self-assessment tools, and various awareness and promotional activities; and providing better monitoring of the official languages situation across the public service through audits and reporting.

I would now like to give you some examples of the activities we have been working on.

This past fall the agency launched an official languages information campaign. We did this in partnership with eight departments, agencies, and crown corporations. The information campaign is designed to give employees a better understanding of how the act applies to them. Another key objective is to motivate all employees to build a fully bilingual working environment, because they see its value, want it for themselves, and want it for Canadians.

The campaign comes with a number of dynamic products such as posters, banners, bookmarks, and key messages, all branded with a new catchy logo. I have to say I find a very positive feel in these materials, and we've had very good feedback.

Under the action plan, the agency has also produced a number of fact sheets on official languages that institutions can use to remind their staff of their obligations under the act.

We also created the good practices forum, an annual event organized with our partners from Canadian Heritage and the Council of the Network of Departmental Official Languages Champions.

Last fall, we held our third forum and had an excellent turnout. Over 300 people participated in the event from across the country. And we're already planning for next year.

Under the action plan we have also added to our inventory of tools to help institutions comply with aspects of the act.

This includes the popular Official Languages Management Dashboard. This web-based tool uses cutting-edge technology to give users a snapshot of the official languages program in their institution. It allows them to easily identify trends and their institution's compliance in key areas, and it even helps them to create tailored reports.

Another tool we're very excited about is called the “ABCs of linguistic profiles at your fingertips”. It helps managers, as well as human resources and official languages specialists, identify the linguistic profiles of bilingual positions objectively and consistently. By using the tool, managers are better able to meet the requirements of the policies and directives on official languages.

We have received some excellent feedback on these initiatives, including from the Official Languages Commissioner in his last annual report.

Finally, I would like to underline the excellent improvements executive and supervisors in the core public administration are making in meeting the language requirements of their positions.

As of March 31, 2006, nearly 93% of them had met the language requirements of their position. This is a marked increase over the previous year when about 85% had met their language requirements. Back in 2002, the success rate was 81%.

We are very encouraged by this positive trend. It tells us that the bilingual capacity of federal institutions continues to improve.

As you can see, the public service, with the agency's support, is taking important steps to renew and sustain itself.

This concludes my opening remarks.

I would be pleased to take your questions after my colleagues have taken the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Ms. Ellis.

We will now continue with the Canada School of Public Service. I believe Ms. Achimov will begin.

[Donna Achimov, Vice-President, Individual Learning, Canada School of Public Service]

Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning to all the members of the committee. I am pleased to be here. I am the vice-president of Individual Learning at the Canada School of Public Service. I am here today with my colleague Mr. Sylvain Dufour, who is the Director General of the language training centre. I am also the school's official languages champion, which is a new position for me.

I will make a short, detailed presentation on our success with respect to the Official Languages Action Plan. On page 2, you will see that our objective today is to talk about our achievements, to give a summary of the number of people who have received training, and our budget.

On page 3, we set out the school's mandate. The school's mandate is to promote learning a second language. We are responsible for three key components: training offered to public servants only, language at work and services to the population, as well as statutory and non-statutory training.

We are also responsible for examinations and diagnostic testing, as well as for the designing and developing of language training products for the adults who come to the Canada School of Public Service.

In summary, the Canada School of Public Service administers language training based on policies set forth by our colleagues at the agency.

Page 4 shows the context, where you can see that there was a tremendous increase in requests for language training from the time the action plan was launched. In April 2004, the new directives had an impact on language training. The new deadlines for senior staff also resulted in an increase in demand for language training, as well as an increase in the hours of language training and the use of the CBC level.

On page 5, you can see that this has resulted in up to 100 new language training requests per month. In an effort to give you some context as well, language training requests were constantly increasing.

There was an additional requirement to improve overall products and services. At the time of the creation of the action plan for official languages, almost all of our materials were based on classroom materials that were very much paper products that were in binders--very much a very limited, formatted approach.

Turning now to the action plan itself, between 2003-04 and 2005-06 the school received $36.1 million under the action plan to meet the increasing needs we were seeing for language requirements, primarily to reduce the waiting lists. At that time we had an increased number of people who were waiting for language training based on the items that I had mentioned earlier--the change in terms of the executive training and the hours of training.

We also received money to streamline the tools to better serve our clients and to create new tools for language skills and maintenance. In 2006-07 we received an additional $12.4 million to deal with, again, the backlog and the potential demand.

In terms of the overall results, I'm pleased to say that after the four years, language training was provided to more than 2,179 public servants, close to 200 more than anticipated. Language training was also provided to 64 people with learning disabilities. As well, waiting lists for language training were reduced from close to 1,000 to less than 85.

Page 7 deals with the long-term benefits of investments in language training. I am very pleased to say that all of the paperwork and documents are now available in the form of very interactive products online. This gives us much more flexibility. It also gives us the opportunity of sharing our tools and skills across the country.

It allows us to customize our tools, and our reach, for people with learning requirements across the country.

The school used the funding to modernize its overall teaching methods. We've learned a lot, because of the action plan, in terms of how adults learn. We've put a great deal of emphasis on learning disabilities, on people who were not successful after trying many times in terms of learning the other official language. The funding allowed us to perfect some of these techniques as well.

We have 33 new tools online, and we've received excellent feedback from private sector and international organizations who are looking at language training techniques for adults.

In conclusion, more public servants have been trained than was planned, particularly public servants with learning disabilities.

The Action Plan for Official Languages funding allowed for more access to language training products.

As I mentioned, we have automated and digitized, and have many interactive tools that are now easily shareable across the country.

I do want to point out here that I was very pleased to learn, when I joined the School of Public Service, that our emphasis has changed from one-time, in-classroom learning French to actually providing people with the tools, the mechanisms, the networks, and the support so that when they come back into their offices and their places of work, they are able to maintain their language training. In the long run, this means that people have a culture--internally in their organization and in their private lives--where official languages play a key role. It's not a one-time classroom experience.

I also have to say that some of the success of our tools has also come to the attention of a number of universities, who are requesting the ability for us to partner and share some of these tools to ensure that the young people who are graduating from universities are coming out with certain language skills that allow them to be competitive.

I'd be very pleased to answer any of your questions.

I would be very pleased to answer your questions. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much for your presentation, Ms. Achimov. You stayed within the timeframe you were given.

We will now continue with Ms. Andrée Duchesne from Justice Canada.

[Andrée Duchesne, Senior Counsel and Manager, Francophonie, Justice in Official Languages and Legal Dualism, Department of Justice Canada]

Very well. You took me slightly by surprise.

First of all, thank you very much for having invited me this morning to share the achievements of the Department of Justice within the framework of the Official Languages Action Plan.

My name is Andrée Duchesne. I am Senior Counsel and Manager at the department, where I deal primarily with Justice in Official Languages in our Francophonie office, Justice in Official Languages and Legal Dualism, a title that we have not been able to shorten for obvious reasons.

My sector is responsible for the coordination and implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act within the department, in particular, but also for departmental initiatives that affect access to justice in both official languages. It is this initiative that comes directly from the action plan for official languages and it will be the subject of my presentation this morning.

The action plan for official languages has three main axes. The initiatives in the area of justice fall under the axis of community development.

Under the action plan, Justice Canada receives funding to meet the government's legal obligations stemming from the implementation of the Legislative Instruments Re-enactment Act and the Federal Court ruling in the Contraventions Act matter. We received for these initiatives $27 million over five years. In addition, the department received funding, $18.5 million over five years, to implement targeted measures aimed at improving access to the justice system in both official languages.

These measures are the following: funding for various projects to be carried out with the assistance of government and non-government partners, stable funding for the seven provincial French-speaking lawyers associations and their national federation, the creation of a mechanism for consultation with minority official language communities, and the development of tools for training Department of Justice legal counsel on language rights.

My presentation today will focus on these last measures, and I will explain how they were implemented and the short-term impact they have in the area of access to justice in both official languages.

If I may, I will first of all say a few words about the Support Fund for Access to Justice in both official languages. The main objective of the support fund is to contribute to better access to the justice system in both official languages, while recognizing the shared areas of jurisdiction in the administration of justice and the various constitutional, legislative and administrative measures related to official languages before the courts.

More specifically, the fund is intended to increase the ability of stakeholders to develop innovative solutions for justice issues related to access to justice in both official languages, as well as educating the legal community and the minority official language communities about exercising their rights and increasing their awareness about issues related to access to justice in both official languages.

The nature and scope of these objectives reflects the reality which is that the administration of the courts is largely a provincial area of jurisdiction whereas the education of communities is primarily a community initiative. Therefore, the department has taken on the role of catalyst, mostly targeting the growth in the capacity of stakeholders involved in the area of access to justice in both official languages.

In 2003, the Department of Justice set up the Support Fund for Access to Justice in both official languages. The department used this leverage to support the seven French-speaking lawyers' associations and their national federation to give them an enhanced ability to act. The department provided core funding to these organizations so that they can fully play their role of informing minority official language communities, and participating in the development of these communities.

One of the most visible results of this core funding was the implementation of stable administration for the French-speaking lawyers' associations and their national federation. These organizations can concentrate on concrete activities that are intrinsic to their mandate, such as the delivery of French-language legal training, the development of jurilinguistic tools and awareness activities for the legal community and the members of minority official language communities.

Additionally, the core funding has allowed the French-speaking lawyers' associations to build networks and partnerships in various quarters. The associations participate in activities such as round tables and regional, provincial and federal committees. This participation puts them in touch with community stakeholders, both legal and governmental. Furthermore, the associations are then in a better position to work with provincial and territorial governments on the issues of access to justice in both official languages.

Finally, the core funding provided to the French-speaking lawyers' associations and their national federation has given them a higher profile in the eyes of the communities, their members and governments. The associations have become an important resource to their communities and credible partners for provincial and territorial governments.

I would add a few words about project funding. This is the second component of the Support Fund for Access to Justice in both official languages. This component aims to increase the awareness of official language communities in a minority situation or to increase the capacity of an organization to meet the needs of the communities in terms of access to justice in both official languages. Since the implementation of the support fund, the department has received 183 applications for project funding. These projects include, for example, workshops for lawyers, developing models for legal documents, workshops on legal terminology and awareness programs for young people focused on careers in the legal sphere in French.

The department encourages recipients to obtain support, financial or otherwise, from other resources for their projects. So far, at least 50% of the projects have received such support. From the outset, the department has provided close monitoring of these projects, resulting in a relationship of trust with the beneficiaries. Since the start of the support fund, the department has held information sessions with the objective of sharing relevant information on the selection criteria, eligibility, the goals and the process to be followed in applying for funding. Moreover, departmental program analysts are available to quickly answer recipients' questions.

The system for processing applications developed by the department was intended to deal with funding applications quickly. Generally speaking, there is a 24-day period between the review of a request and the date of a formal decision.

I'll say a few words on the consultation mechanism.

We established a number of advisory committees. They are the advisory committee on justice in official languages; the subcommittee on access to justice in both official languages; and the FPT working group on access to justice in both official languages.

The mandate of the advisory committee is to act as liaison between the Department of Justice and legal and official language minority stakeholders. The committee is composed of six members from the department and organizations that speak for official language communities. At the meetings of this committee, members have an opportunity to discuss needs, concerns, and avenues to be explored in relation to access to justice in both official languages. Stakeholders note that this cooperation between the department and the organizations that sit on the advisory committee provide them with a better understanding of the needs of official language minority communities and of the capacity of the Department of Justice to take action in respect of issues relating to the administration of justice in both official languages.

The access to justice subcommittee deals specifically with issues of access to justice in both official languages. There are 30 to 40 participants at this subcommittee, with representatives of the department, organizations that speak for the official language communities, linguistic centres, law faculties, and francophone affairs officials of the provinces and territories. Members are expected to coordinate their activities, exchange information, and identify needs for tools to be developed. This subcommittee holds one meeting per year.

Members of the subcommittee see it as an efficient discussion forum where the various stakeholders working in the legal system and in community associations can get to know one another and network. The meetings held to date have provided an opportunity to exchange information about access to justice in both official languages, the needs of the communities concerned, activities undertaken, and avenues to explore in the future. As well, the department uses the subcommittee to inform members about activities undertaken by the support fund and to involve them in the management and future planning of the support fund for access to justice in both official languages.

I have a few words on the FPT working group on access to justice in both official languages.

The FPT working group is composed of representatives of the department, again, and of the provincial and territorial governments. The FPT working group was created to enable the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to coordinate their efforts and share information relating to access to justice in both official languages. All provinces and territories are represented in the working group, with the exception of Prince Edward Island. Although P.E.I. does not participate in the meetings, it has asked to be kept informed about what happens.

The working group has given the provinces and territories an opportunity to get involved in access to justice in both official languages. It is in fact the main forum through which the provinces and territories can identify their often similar needs in relation to access to justice in both official languages, discuss best practices, and develop common solutions. Opportunities to work on these together often emerge through discussions within the working group.

Our third component deals with developing tools for legal counsel within the department.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Ms. Duchesne, you have about one minute left.

[Andrée Duchesne]

Perfect; I was just coming to my conclusion.

Since 2003, the department has taken advantage of the opportunity that the action plan has given it to develop tools for legal counsel, but also to train more than 500 officials since the implementation of the amendments to the Official Languages Act in November, 2005.

In conclusion, I would just like to say that access to justice in both official languages is often seen as an issue that is only of interest to the judges and lawyers. Access to justice is a much broader concept. It affects all Canadians in the same way that health and education does. In that sense, it would be much more important to talk about services to the public and services to justice rather than access to the justice system. This is the approach that has guided the achievements of the Department of Justice since 2003 and it is the thinking that will also guide us in our future achievements.

Finally, I would like to say that the final assessment of our program, the Support Fund for Access to Justice, is available on the departmental website. I will be pleased to give the specific coordinates to the clerk.

Thank you very much for your attention and for your invitation to appear this morning.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Duchesne.

We will bear in mind that your program assessment is available. We will see if we can distribute it to the members of the committee as well.

We will now begin the first round of questions, giving seven minutes to each member.

We will begin with Mr. Pablo Rodriguez.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to all of you. Thank you for being here.

Ms. Ellis, on the subject of the Public Service Agency of Canada, it says in the document:

The Agency's mandate is to manage implementation of the Public Service Modernization Act, which was passed in November 2003, and to provide general direction and oversight to all institutions subject to the Official Languages Act [...]

What does “provide general direction” mean?

[Karen Ellis]

That means that we have really invested in our ability to develop policies and information products that we share with departments and federal institutions. With the tools, the principles of each policy, we can give explanations to the institutions and let them know what it is they must do.

In each institution, often or regularly someone is the champion for official languages. We work with the network of champions, and, for example, we will provide training to the trainers in each department. It is not up to us to achieve all of the policy objectives or those in the act, it is up to the deputy ministers, to the departments and the institutions to achieve the results with the help of our policies. As the central agency, we have the role of providing the policy, but the departments and institutions must themselves work in compliance with the principles of the policies in order to obtain the result of achieving a culture that encourages the use of both official languages and meets their obligations under the legislation.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

In your presentation, you say that you ensure that you meet your obligations under the Official Languages Act. However, concretely speaking, beyond using words like “to encourage” and “to watch over”, do you have clear, specific objectives to reach in terms of training and of bilingualism, concrete measurable objectives?

[Karen Ellis]

We have established an evaluation process, to take stock annually of each of the federal institutions. This means that we are responsible for all three parts of the Official Languages Act, parts IV, V and VI. As you know, there are very clear provisions in the act that must be complied with by the departments.

We do a series of evaluations. In some cases, there is a self-assessment tool that the institutions use. Every year, there are reports that show what each institution's performance is as far as compliance with the act and implementation of its key and concrete elements are concerned. For us, this is a cycle, a series of assessments that gives them visibility. If we see a problem with an institution, a difficulty in the use of the legislation, we give it some visibility in the eyes of the public and in the eyes of the department so that they can correct the situation. The assessments we make and the records we keep with institutions really are concrete actions.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

In the numerical reports we have here, if I understand correctly, we can see a substantial decrease in your budget, is that possible?

[Karen Ellis]

A decrease?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

The document says: “The budget of the Agency will decrease from 36% between 2006 and 2009, going from $104.7 million in 2006-2007 to $67 million in 2008-2009.”

[Karen Ellis]

I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have the figures that you have. Are you talking about the entire agency's budget?