Thank you.
Greetings, Ms. Barrados, Mr. Lemaire and Mr. Edwards.
We always wonder whether the senior public service—of which you are examples—is bilingual or not. People can be functionally bilingual or bilingual very easily for other reasons.
The Commissioner of Official Languages, when he came to testify, presented a report that read as follows: “Ninety per cent of employees responsible for providing service to the public in both official languages meet the language requirements of their positions.” So there is a link established between bilingualism and the position. That means that the employee may not necessarily be bilingual in other aspects of his or her position. A senior manager is not a machine. He or she does many other things in life, even it is only to correspond with all employees.
Do the language requirements for your position appear strict to you today? I expect you to answer based on all the tasks that you carry out today and not with regard to former tasks. Are the requirements for your position very strict? How can the linguistic duality of these tasks be appreciated by the public? Ultimately, it is the public who will know whether the public service is bilingual or not.
You have a new power, which I will call a power of oversight, because there is a delegation. How can a deputy minister who does not speak French or English communicate with his minister? Does he use the services of an interpreter? Does he bring two interpreters, one for French and one for English? There are situations in the public service where the deputy minister has trouble communicating with his minister and vice versa.
How does your power of oversight allow you to assess the situation on the ground in ways other than the use of tests? I may pass an exam but not actually be able to speak the language in practice. I would like to know what you do. What should be improved, if anything at all?