Thank you, Madam Chair.
I represent the riding of Gatineau, where approximately 6,000 people work for the federal State. So the federal government is an important employer. We are told that francophone public servants—those for whom French is the language spoken at home, the mother tongue—can work in the language spoken at home in their departments. I do not want you to pay any heed to these words, because from one department to the other, from one agency to the other, from one Crown corporation to the other—I realize that the Treasury Board does not cover these groups—, things do not transpire the same way everywhere. We are in the federal capital region, and some people have problems working in their mother tongue. In some instances, they stop communicating in this language because their superiors make absolutely no effort to understand them or do not forward the memos or work notes prepared by these employees. These individuals, however, do live in what is said to be the most bilingual region in Canada.
We need to pay attention when we make such affirmations. You may be generalizing, but in some departments, this is not the case.
Ms. d'Auray, when an employee cannot work in his mother tongue and is dissatisfied, what recourse does he have with his employer, without being penalized?