Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We thank you for this opportunity to be with you this morning. We'll be making a few preliminary remarks, each in our turn. I will begin and will be followed by Lt. General Dumais, then Commissioner Da Pont. We're going to explain the roles and responsibilities of our various components and provide you with an overview of how communications for search and rescue operations function. To conclude, before the hearing of the recording, I will provide some brief background to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
We necessarily appreciate that it is unfortunately the after-effects of the tragic incident involving the fishing boat L'Acadien II that occurred in the night of March 28 to 29 last, during the seal hunt near Cape Breton, that have brought us before your committee today. In the wake of that incident, questions have been raised about French-language communications during the rescue operations.
Allow me first to acknowledge and emphasize how difficult this incident has been for the families and friends of those who were lost, for the survivors and their families, and for the community at large. I sympathize and I am sure my colleagues also sympathize with them with all their heart.
I must also tell you that, as you said, Mr. Chairman, three investigations into this incident are currently underway. One is being conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to assess whether a criminal investigation is warranted; a second is being conducted by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which has a legal mandate to determine the causes and underlying factors that led to the accident; and, lastly, a review by the Coast Guard was launched immediately following the incident, to examine whether the relevant policies and procedures were followed.
We have retained an independent investigator for this review, Retired Rear-Admiral Roger Girouard, who brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this task. He began his investigation a few weeks ago and intends to complete it and make his report public this fall.
As the committee can appreciate, I am not at liberty to get into the details surrounding the incident while the investigations are ongoing. Once the reports are completed and issued, we will be able to comment on the findings, results, and recommendations.
The government has committed to making public the findings of all the reports. As my minister, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, has indicated, Mr. Girouard's report will be shared first with the families of the deceased and then more broadly with Canadians.
My minister, the commissioner, and I have committed to ensuring that any recommendations stemming from Mr. Girouard's report are addressed expeditiously.
As regards the delivery of services in both official languages, I want to emphasize that my department, which includes the Canadian Coast Guard, is fully committed to the acts and obligations in this area. With more than 10,000 employees across the country, we are very much aware of the importance of delivering bilingual services in the designated areas.
Before turning to the language of service, I would ask General Dumais to speak to his responsibilities on the federal search and rescue program. Mr. Da Pont will then address how bilingual search and services are provided.