Good afternoon, everyone.
On behalf of the Professional Institute of the Public Service, I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to come and talk to you about the official languages challenge, more particularly the perspective of the federal public service.
First of all, allow me to reiterate to you the Professional Institute's unconditional commitment to the fundamental principle of official languages in Canada and bilingualism in the public service. That said, you will understand that this subject is extremely delicate for the members we represent. A large proportion of the members we represent are obviously bilingual and occupy bilingual positions. But we also represent a large percentage of unilingual Anglophone and unilingual Francophone members.
The expectations and implementation of official languages policies for all classes of employees have taken on very different proportions and dimensions. Those classes of employees expect their union to protect their right to apply for employment and to enjoy career advancement in the public service within the currently imposed official languages framework.
It should also be noted that there has been an apparent withdrawal by the machinery of government from the promotion of official languages and official language training, and from funding of the departments to which responsibility for language training has been delegated, because the School of Public Service no longer offers full-time training to public service employees.
I don't intend to read my brief. You have it before you, and I'm sure you'll be reading it with great interest, as bedside reading, before you go to bed at night. However, I'd like to talk to you about what is currently going on in the federal public service, from our point of view, and to share our recommendations, which appear in the brief.
We understand that the challenge of creating a fully bilingual public service is a difficult one. In the long run, the government-wide Action Plan launched in 2003 was a useful beginning. That plan was built on three pillars of development: education, support to communities in the official language and minority situations and bilingualism in the federal public service. However, in order for these objectives to be achieved, most of the responsibility lies with the public school system, which should ensure that Canadians have a good mastery of both official languages before they receive a high school diploma.
That was in 2003. What has happened since then with regard to the official languages in the schools? To my knowledge, we have not taken any major steps forward. That's the basis; that's the foundation. If we want to achieve a completely bilingual federal public service, that's where it starts. We can continue talking about it for another 10 years. The Official Languages Act was proclaimed in 1973—