Evidence of meeting #14 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was positions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Edwards.
Before starting the second round, I would just like to clarify something for Mr. Godin concerning his comment a few minutes ago about instruction at the university level. In the report that was distributed yesterday, recommendation 3 deals specifically with that, the importance of institutions at the postsecondary level promoting French. We can come back to that in discussion of the report.
We will now start the second round. You have five minutes, Mr. Rodriguez.
February 12th, 2008 / 9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
I would like to pursue a subject raised by Mr. Godin, about your role, because I am not sure I understand it. Listening to you, I have the impression that you have delegated virtually all your responsibilities, and I am not sure that you are left with much to do. That's a joke, but I am partly serious.
What are the basic items, the major activities, that you are still involved in?
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
First, we have responsibility for the Public Service Employment Act, that is, for the entire system of appointments to the public service and within the public service. The Act encouraged the Commission to delegate its powers of appointment, subject to certain requirements. That is what we have done, and at the same time we have improved our capacity for oversight, to ensure that departments are in compliance when they exercise the powers delegated to them. In terms of political activities, we have responsibility for authorizing public servants to take part in municipal, provincial or federal campaigns, as candidates in an election.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
So it affects people who want to stand for election, and not just do volunteer work.
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
No, it affects people who want to stand for election.
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
They have to submit ... there are established procedures. So the Commission has responsibility for giving the authorization. It also manages what is called the job site of the Government of Canada for external appointments, when people apply for a job. It is responsible for language tests. In other words, the Public Service Commission is responsible for developing and conducting the language tests. That is part of our responsibilities.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Is Canada "well served" by delegating that? Is this a good thing?
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
The Act, the delegation scheme, has been in force since 2006. There is nothing to suggest, one way or the other, that...
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
There is no resistance on your part, that is, you have...
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
No.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
You say that you delegate functions, that you keep some responsibility in terms of monitoring and oversight. I wonder how real that is, what your powers within that are, for example in terms of monitoring and oversight. What happens if you monitor, you oversee, and you don't agree? Do you have any powers?
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
If I may, before answering I would like to add that we also have a power to investigate. When an individual believes that there has been fraud or some action that should be investigated, the Public Service Commission has the power to investigate. It can also conduct investigations into internal processes, at the request of a deputy minister, and so on. Those are part of its powers. The Commission can — my colleague will be able to provide you with more detail on this — can withdraw the delegation or revoke an appointment.
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
Yes, after following certain procedures.
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Delegation, Policy Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
We have a number of tools available to us for managing the system so that we can monitor things. Of course being able to withdraw the delegation is a tool, but we also have the power to write to the Clerk of the Privy Council, we can write to the responsible deputy minister in the department, we can publish the findings in our annual report, and so on.
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Did you have responsibilities initially under the Action Plan? When the Action Plan was prepared, were specific responsibilities...?
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
We had a responsibility to "demystify" bilingualism in the federal public service.
9:45 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
We hope so. It is very difficult to evaluate the extent to which people have a better understanding of what the bilingualism level means. We also had work to do with the anglophone community in Quebec. It is very important to explain what the bilingualism level means, for example by using the DVD that gives very concrete examples of employees who have different language proficiencies, so that people can really understand...
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Is there something that could be included in the new Action Plan that would be useful to you: tools or whatever that could be useful to you, that you could use to do your work better?
9:50 a.m.
Vice-President, Staffing and Assessment Services Branch, Public Service Commission of Canada
We would be very happy to pursue the initiative that started with the original Action Plan and move forward in terms of awareness and the plan to promote bilingualism at educational institutions.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez.
It seems that the researcher could provide some assistance on this subject.
9:50 a.m.
Jean-Rodrigue Paré Committee Researcher
I would like to clarify one thing. In the original Action Plan, in 2003, the Commission was responsible for everything, because it was before the Agency was created. Initially, in the Action Plan, the Commission received $38.6 million to deal with all training, with the entire bilingualism aspect. All or part of that budget was then transferred to the Agency when it was created, at the end of 2003. The Agency itself then transferred some of its budget to the school, when the school was created. That is why there may be some confusion as to their mandates.