As far as I am concerned, I have been a public servant for the last 24 years. I was assistant deputy minister at National Defence for a few years and I have always worked with my managers to make sure that there was compliance with the plans which truly enabled us to manage a bilingual staff. That is what I want to say. As managers, as leaders within the public service, people must take this seriously. We must do things respectfully, not just to meet obligations, but to also encourage the use of both official languages in the workplace. Everyone must know that this is truly important.
On February 5th, 2008. See this statement in context.