What really is critical is that departments create an environment and a culture that doesn't simply permit the use of both languages but encourages the use of both languages, and that makes it clear that this is a value for the department, for the government, and for the country.
One has to realize, in terms of language of work, what a radical departure from the rest of a public servant's life it is to have the right to choose language. So many other elements of the working life of a public servant are decided by somebody else, whether it's the minister, whether it's the deputy, whether it's Treasury Board guidelines, or whether it's Public Works. The number of square metres in the carrel space is defined by somebody else. There is one area in which the employee can say, this is the language I choose to work in. It can run so much against the current that an employee is hesitant to exercise that right, and a right that is not exercised is a right that shrivels up and vanishes.
And quite often I've seen and heard too many examples of senior public servants who are either bilingual francophones or bilingual anglophones who speak French better than I do who, when they are speaking to a large number of employees or to groups outside the public service, will begin by saying, « Merci beaucoup de l'invitation » and will end their remarks by saying, « Encore une fois, merci », and in between will speak for half an hour in English.