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.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Mr. Chairman, it should be pointed out that currently there is only one judge on the Supreme Court who is not able to listen to statements made to the court in French. And, to my knowledge, the francophones—
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, but according to the government's smear campaign, Mr. Fraser, according to the newspaper article—I would ask you to read it—if the bill were passed, there would only be two Supreme Court judges who would be qualified.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Mr. Chairman, I am accountable to Parliament. I am willing to appear anywhere, any time, to speak about this. I have already made statements to the newspapers when there have been articles on this topic. I have not yet read the article in this morning's newspaper that the member is referring to, but I can assure him that I will look at this. I do not ignore articles that, in my opinion, distort the situation that the member is referring to.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Mr. Commissioner.
Thank you Mr. Godin.
We'll now turn to Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Fraser, to you and your team for being with us here this morning. It's nice to have you to hear about all the work that's being done to promote linguistic duality.
As we know, linguistic duality covers a lot of the areas and different levels of government. This endeavour also involves raising awareness among the general public, which is a very important act that our government wants to see done. The main estimates for the commissioner's office are in the amount of $20,615,000, and that's just for the year 2010-11.
Could you explain how much money you intend to set aside specifically for your office's court interventions?
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
That is part of the budget. I will ask Madam Tremblay to comment specifically on this.
Johane Tremblay Lead Counsel and Director, Legal Affairs Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
It's difficult to identify a very correct figure about the cost of a court intervention, because we do not use external services, we use our internal services. Our legal counsel intervenes before the court.
To give you a general indication, the budget allocated to legal services represents about 5% of the total budget. Of course, court intervention is only part of the activities of legal services.
We can provide you with more information, if you wish, in a few days.
Conservative
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
One of the reasons it's difficult to clearly budget is that we don't know what cases are going to come up over the year. Depending on the level of court intervention, costs vary.
For example, when we intervened before the courts in the Northwest Territories, we had to send a lawyer to the Northwest Territories, and there were additional costs as a result. It is also more expensive to intervene before the Supreme Court--because of the level of documentation that's required--than it is to intervene before the Federal Court.
So these are varying expenses that become difficult to foresee, but as Madam Tremblay said, it was within a general envelope of 5% of our budget.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
You stated that in the last...you've intervened probably about ten times.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
That's correct.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
But in the year 2010-11 coming up, you have no indication of how many times you would be in court, or to intervene?
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
No, we haven't made a final decision. There are some cases on the horizon in which we'll have to make a decision--do we intervene or not--but that becomes a strategic decision. When there are cases that are coming forward, it's difficult to know how far they will proceed in the court system, and whether it is appropriate for us to intervene at the lower court level or to wait to see if the case is going to proceed to higher levels.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Thank you.
In 2008-09, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages spent $1,780 on public notices. Why was this expenditure incurred, and where did these public notices appear?
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Madam Lagacé...?
I don't have the specific answer off the top of my head. We may have to....
Colette Lagacé Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Good morning.
Is the amount $1.8 million for the public notices you're referring to?
Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages publishes public notices in telephone books and other publications so that people can contact them. Those are the kinds of expenditures that are in our budget.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Okay.
Now, in 2010-11 there is an increase of $680,000 over 2009-10. What is this increase due to, and how will the new money be allocated within your office?
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Before I ask Madam Lagacé to comment in detail, I'll say that most of the increase that has taken place from year to year has been from the negotiated salaries that are part of the collective agreements that are negotiated. From now on, those increases, which represent 1.5%, will have to be absorbed within our budget. So we are in the process of absorbing that 1.5% looking forward.
Do you have anything else to add?
Director, Finance and Procurement, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
No, you're referring to the collective agreement for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents the majority of the staff in the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. It applies to all the branches.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.
We will start our second round with Mr. D'Amours.
Liberal
Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Commissioner, and all your officials, for coming before us this morning.
Commissioner, I'm going to ask you a question. I know that I can't make you do this, but if you can, I would like you to listen to my question in French; I would really appreciate this. I rarely do this but I'm going to read my question and come back to you afterwards.
I am going to read slowly, because this is very important.
From the past few years, responding to an investigation required to answer the investigation on care institutions for internal beneficiaries using an electronic system on the Internet. We ask you to announce this is now possible.
Did you understand what I said?
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Quite frankly, I didn't.