Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to all our witnesses.
Ms. Barrados, I have a number of questions. Today I'm going to refer to the proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages. I'm very much interested in two things.
There is the testimony that you gave at the Senate hearings a year ago, and there is the testimony of Justice Bastarache. His reference, of course, was principally to Desrochers, but I thought he had some insightful commentary on some of the issues that we're grappling with here today.
My concerns are these, but first of all, congratulations for the great work you do.
The objectives of the Public Service Commission of Canada for next year are clear. You are no doubt more advanced with regard to the objective
overall of our government to have a more meaningful sense of what Justice Bastarache describes as the distinction between a formal equality and a substantive equality.
So my questions are these. You may take the last couples of minutes to answer them.
Clearly, in the commissioner's report, he identified that you had several activities that we could draw from. The Public Service Commission is unique, unlike other departments, and there may be a disconnect there, because those public servants work in those departments and we have departments that haven't fared that well. And we have an overall budget with respect to our investment in official languages that has so far been unparalleled.
Addressing Justice Bastarache's comments there, what are the important next steps for us in going from formal equality to a substantive equality in the context of the kinds of training available to public servants and the situation you have as a watchdog in this regard? What recommendations would you make in taking us farther along in that process?