Thank you very much.
I would like to just say I had meant to present my colleague, Kelly Collins, and I apologize for not doing that. Kelly is here with me.
Just on the last point, certainly there would likely be some statistics available. We wouldn't have them with us right now, but we would be happy to follow up with the committee clerk.
You raise a very important question. Again, I would like just to go back to what I said in my opening remarks about the importance of good planning by departments. If they are really thinking about their business needs and the people and talents and skills they need to do that business, they can then start to develop really effective recruiting strategies and they can look specifically at questions around language needs for the workforce they have.
I think we have to really value diversity in the public service. When we talk about diversity, yes, it's employment equity groups, but it's also diversity from the regions of Canada, the different perspectives of Canada. So the point you raise is that we need to be open and inclusive in representing Canada's population.
If you were going to be recruiting, you could, as a department, plan a process where you would be very open to people who might be unilingual in one language or the other. When they come in the door--once you've recruited them and you bring them in--you need to have a manager who's hired them in that work unit who will actually start to work with them from the minute they come into the public service to determine what their learning needs are, where the second language training will fit in.
What I would say to you is that in order to enable people to advance in the public service, if that's what they wish to do, we have to get them going early, in terms of their second language training, because of course it's key. Especially as you get to the more senior levels, you do have to have certain levels.