I will ask Ms. Cloutier.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:40 a.m.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
I will ask Ms. Cloutier.
9:40 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
This year, between $120,000 and $180,000 will have to be absorbed by our budget.
9:40 a.m.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
We are starting to review the services in our budget—we are doing what is called in English an A-base review. We will go through all our expenditures in order to determine whether or not our expenditures reflect our priorities.
9:45 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I imagine you want to avoid cutting any jobs as well, to the greatest extent possible.
From a logistical perspective, it is extremely important that you be very much up-to-date, because if you're not... The same applies to us, if we do not have up-to-date equipment then we cannot function; we cannot get the information we need to do our work. I hope that Treasury Board will accept your request and provide you with the necessary equipment because equipment develops very quickly and you cannot work with equipment that is five or six years old and that hasn't been replaced, of course.
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Yes. Ms. Cloutier can expand on that.
9:45 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
We have platforms that have not been renewed for more than five years. For example, our servers are on Windows 2000 and our platforms are no longer maintained by the industry. We have not evolved. In fact, our technology is obsolete.
More importantly, some of our systems were built by small independent companies and these systems are no longer maintained either. For example, in terms of our complaints system, there is only one individual who understands the system well enough in order to be able to repair it if it breaks down. This situation poses a significant risk to our organization. Furthermore, it prevents us from fulfilling the role that we are supposed to play for institutions, that is our role to influence or our ability to integrate information in order to truly understand the situation in various institutions, for example.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions, Ms. Guay.
We will now continue with Mr. Généreux.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Fraser, ladies and gentlemen.
First of all, I have to say I'm guilty before you receive any complaints against me. I am the member for the most francophone riding in all of Canada. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think I'm mistaken, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup is—
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
You are apologizing!
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I am not apologizing, in fact I'm very proud.
At the beginning of the year, I sent a survey to my constituents. Unfortunately, because of a computer problem there were some mistakes in the survey. I mention this because I think it is important that all members of the committee understand. Given what Mr. D'Amours said about translation, I think it's obvious that a letter that was translated word for word was sent. I'm not excusing it. I absolutely agree with what Mr. D'Amours said. That should no longer happen in 2010. Unfortunately it still does. Mistakes were made in my survey. I am a printer and every time there is a mistake in a text, the printer is the one who is accused even though he did not write the text. I'm very familiar with the references. That said, I think it is important that departments pay attention to this kind of detail. On the other hand, as I mentioned, it can happen to anyone and it happened to me.
Mr. Fraser, you said in your statement that you receive approximately 800 complaints every year. Over the past year, you've received a little more than that, for two specific reasons.
Can you tell us how many people work on responding to complaints? What is the nature of these complaints? We talked about it a little the other day. Some complaints refer specifically to the Olympic Games. Generally speaking, what do these 800 complaints refer to?
9:45 a.m.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
I will give you a general answer and then Ms. Charlebois will be able to provide you with more detail.
Several institutions regularly receive complaints. Last week you were discussing Air Canada. As we say, they're one of our "regular clients".
I will now ask Ms. Charlebois to give you further detail, describe the responsibilities of her staff and expand on our—
April 20th, 2010 / 9:50 a.m.
Ghislaine Charlebois Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Right now, there are 58 resource persons in my sector. Of course, these people don't all work directly on settling complaints. They perform different duties. But there are still a few vacant positions. About 30 people work directly on complaints.
Having said that, sometimes we receive several complaints regarding one specific event. So we don't necessarily start an investigation for each complaint, but we group a number of them together. For example, that's what happened in the case of the Olympic Games. One employee is given a number of complaints to handle and that person will conduct the investigation. The same is true for complaints regarding cutbacks at Radio-Canada. There are a large number of complaints, but a single person looks after that file in a more general manner.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Ms. Lagacé, from a financial standpoint, what proportion of the departmental budget does complaints processing represent? Is it possible for you to identify that in a concrete way?
9:50 a.m.
Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
You want to know the cost of a complaint?
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I will inevitably get the cost of a complaint in the final analysis but—
9:50 a.m.
Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
It is very difficult to say because as Ms. Charlebois just mentioned, employees perform different duties. We are a small organization.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
9:50 a.m.
Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
A single person doesn't carry out only one duty. Some complaints are handled according to the facilitation process. It is brief, we're talking about one or two days. However, another complaint might take three months to get solved. So it's difficult to attribute a specific cost to complaints. However, I can give you the annual budget of this organization.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I'd like to get information on the amount that you can allocate to complaints processing on an annual basis. I'm also trying to find out whether in the past...
I've only been sitting on this committee for a short while. I'm not a veteran here like Mr. Bélanger or Mr. Godin. They've been here for a long time and they know how things are done.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
