Official Languages Committee on Nov. 25th, 2010

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I'm going to take note of her name and go and see her personally to tell her more about this subject. The situation has to be resolved.

I'm listening to what you have to tell me following my comments.

[Susan Gregson]

First of all, I want to thank you for bringing those cases to our attention, because it's when we get this kind of feedback that we can take corrective action.

In response to the questions you raised during Mr. Fraser's appearance in November, we obviously brought this to the attention of our head of mission in Bogotá, and she told us the mission had already undertaken some corrective actions. First of all, the main receptionist is fluent in both French and English. Replacements who are not fluent in French have been instructed to refer callers and visitors to a French-speaking colleague immediately. A glossary of French terms and phrases has been provided to all the employees working at the reception, including those who might be acting as replacements during the break. That's often something that comes us, that we have people who are trained—

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Pardon me for interrupting you, Ms. Gregson, but my time is nearly up.

The problem is the service provided to citizens when they call there. I'm not talking about the office receptionist to whom you say good morning when you enter. When staff from my Gatineau office call Bogota, it's to speak with people who have decisions and choices to make. I'm not talking here about the person who receives visitors, saying: "Bonjour, hi, how do you do?"

[Susan Gregson]

I'm going to submit this information to our colleagues at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

All our LES staff, our locally engaged consular staff, are already bilingual in French and English. Our local staff serving the immigration program should have the same kinds of direction that other staff receive, so this is something we will follow up.

The immigration and visa section in Bogotá serves a predominantly Colombian clientele, a Spanish-speaking clientele. There are formal procedures in place to ensure that any of the callers or visitors who want to be served in French are transferred to a French-speaking employee immediately. There are several locally engaged staff who are fluent in French, as well as the Canada-based officers.

Again, we'll bring this back to the attention of our colleague.

I'm talking here about our head of mission in Bogota. I'm sure she will be very concerned about this problem and will want to draw our employees' attention to the importance of providing Canadians with service in both official languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll now give the floor to Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much for being here this morning, mesdames.

Ms. Gregson, you've had quite an exceptional journey with everything you've done in your career. In your work at other departments and government organizations, have you ever been called upon to take corrective action with respect to French or the implementation of the Official Languages Act, or have you ever been faced with problems of this kind? To a certain degree, you've always occupied management positions.

[Susan Gregson]

Of course. As a head of mission and diplomat overseas, I have always been responsible for promoting Canada's two official languages in my work. You're asking me whether I've previously had occasion to speak before a committee on this subject when I was employed at other department. I would say this is the first time. However, obviously, I've always been aware of my responsibilities throughout my career.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

As you know, mine is the most francophone constituency in Canada. So we obviously don't hear a lot about these problems at my office. I get few requests about relations. Mr. Nadeau is talking about certain situations he is facing. However, people in my riding travel a lot, and the problems mainly concern security issues. When people are overseas and turn to embassies and missions, they often do so in urgent circumstances. I believe that aspect is extremely important. Even here, amongst ourselves, whether we're anglophone or francophone, when we're in an emergency, it's never easy to speak and to make oneself understood. So imagine yourself opposite these people. This is an extremely important aspect of your mission with respect to services to travelling Canadians.

This is the first time your department has been evaluated and you've received an E. Obviously, we would always like to get better marks than what we actually get. However, I don't believe this is just fit for the cat, to repeat what Mr. Bélanger said earlier. I don't doubt what you do, what you write in your reports or your intentions. I believe in you, and I believe you're no doubt capable of earning a better mark than the one you got. I hope we'll have the opportunity to see each other again and to discuss this once more. You're going to write a new report, and I'm sure you'll take into account what you heard today, since that's how we move forward in life.

I would like to ask you a question about locally engaged staff. We know this is often a problem. What real efforts is the department making to ensure these people have a minimum level of bilingualism? You were given the example of Bogota, where 90%, or at least a large majority of services are offered in Spanish. Do you really put the emphasis on French and English, on English and Spanish, or what?

[Susan Gregson]

Perhaps I could give another example from my own personal experience.

First of all, all local employees have the opportunity to study both official languages through the program I mentioned in my opening remarks. Second, most missions will offer language classes to employees who do not speak the other official language.

I'll again draw on my own experience. In Shanghai we had engaged the services of the spouse of one of our Canada-based staff, a francophone, to come in and give classes. These were formal classes. Employees were encouraged to register for them, and they were very happy and enthusiastic to do so. It was very encouraging to see their level of enthusiasm. They wished to be able to provide better services to the public.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

That leads me to my next question. Do you systematically offer courses for people to learn the official languages?

[Susan Gregson]

Yes, we have a program.

Do you want to explain it, Ms. Janecek?

[Monica Janecek]

Yes.

We have access to on-line courses.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Providing access is one thing, but do you urge people to respond?

[Monica Janecek]

Yes, yes. The missions have to provide active offer. These people may not be perfectly bilingual, but they clearly have to provide active offer. Through our network of coordinators, we remind people that they are on-line courses and that managers have to allow locally engaged staff time for that purpose. As Ms. Gregson mentioned, there's even a course on Canada. It's intended for locally engaged staff and includes a part on Canada's linguistic duality.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Mr. Gravelle, it's your turn.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm going to ask you two questions. Unfortunately, I then have to leave, but my colleague will listen to your answers.

Since 2007, what measures have been taken to improve access to security services in both official languages in the context of Canada's missions? I'd also like to know whether it's possible to get a complete list of the official languages champions.

[Susan Gregson]

Of course, we can submit that list to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We're going to listen for you, Mr. Gravelle.

[Monica Janecek]

Your question concerned security guards, didn't it? That's always a challenge for us because most of the time it's not the embassy that hires those people. In some cases, it's local government employees. That's the case in China, for example. It's very hard to insist that those employees speak English or French. We try to hire people who speak our official languages, but that's not always possible. In Rome, however, our embassy has managed to get the security agency to agree that security guards will speak Italian, French and English.

It's one of the best practices, and one that we encourage other missions to follow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Will it be possible to get those documents? I believe there's a large quantity of them.

[Monica Janecek]

Yes. I've taken some notes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

That ends our meeting.

Yes, Mr. Galipeau?

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Is this the end of this part of the meeting?