Official Languages Committee on Nov. 30th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I call the meeting to order.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3), this morning we are considering the 2009-2010 Annual Report (Volume II) of the Commissioner of Official Languages, which was referred to the committee on Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

We have two representatives of Library and Archives Canada, Mr. Daniel J. Caron, who is Librarian and Archivist, and Mr. Mark Melanson, who is Senior Director General, Corporate Resourcing Branch.

I welcome you and, without further ado, invite you to make your opening statement.

[Daniel J. Caron, Librarian and Archivist, Library and Archives Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Blaney.

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee today. I am appearing before you in response to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Official Languages which was tabled on November 2. That report contains an evaluation of the performance of Library and Archives Canada as measured against its obligations under the Official Languages Act.

I'm accompanied here to by Mr. Mark Melanson, as he oversees the implementation of the Official Languages Act within our institution.

Library and Archives Canada combines the holdings, services and staff of two organizations that have now been merged: the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada. Our essential mandate is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations; to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada; to facilitate in Canada cooperation among communities, including official language minority communities, involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge; and, lastly, to serve as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

The face of information has changed substantially in the last decade. There is now superabundance; rapid creation, multiple formats; unprecedented access; and expanding user influence. This picture is in direct contrast to that of the past, which was characterized by limited creation and quantity, mediated access and decisions, authoritative sources, specialist interventions, a limited number of fixed formats, limited sharing, and fewer players. All of this calls into question the very basis of the traditional practices and theories that have driven the management of information, librarianship, documentary heritage, and the development of Canada's continuing memory.

Library and Archives Canada now needs to determine how to achieve optimal results in this constantly evolving environment to stay relevant to Canadians.

As the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, I am leading my institution through a process of modernization that touches all of our principal business activities in order to ensure that LAC respects and maintains its legislated mandate of acquiring, preserving and making accessible Canada's documentary heritage for present and future generations.

During this process, I draw upon my experience as the former president of the Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions to ensure that our new and emerging organization embodies in an exemplary fashion the spirit and intention of the Official Languages Act.

In general, recognition and respect for official languages is a question of respect for colleagues and Canadians. It is a matter of institutional and constitutional sustainability, of reinforcing our comparative advantages and of making Canadian values more vibrant in our daily life. In short, it means respecting our founding principles.

The future of official languages in Canada depends on our willingness and our ability to make linguistic duality work. We do not need to wait for new rules and regulations; we need to use what we have, to be respectful of our values and to be creative and innovative.

Canadians expect that their federal public service will be institutionally bilingual. Not only to be able to serve Canadians in the official language of their choice, but also to nourish policy thinking from the work and ideas emerging from the two official language communities.

With regard to the publication of the Commissioner of Official Languages annual report, I would like to respond with respect to LAC successes, areas where progress can be made, and areas where we have taken significant steps to improve.

In particular, LAC received perfect scores for the provision of its services in both official languages, in person or by phone. Concerning the active offer of service by telephone, Library and Archives Canada was one of only three institutions to receive this perfect score.

As for the application of the Official Languages Act in the work environment, Library and Archives Canada is proud of its performance, having attained the highest grade given among the 16 federal institutions evaluated.

Finally, with respect to the comprehensive measures taken by LAC to promote the vitality of official language minority communities, I would like to mention that LAC was evaluated during the first year of a four-year action plan for official languages.

Within the allotted time frame that allows for the completion of LAC's action plan, it is understood that we will need to make some adjustments beyond the first year of its implementation, especially when we take into consideration the nature of capturing a community's documentary heritage.

Gone are the days when a national archive could decide on its own what is the appropriate collection of heritage documents for a linguistic minority community and determine how this heritage will be accessed. A modem organization like LAC seeks to form partnerships with the members of the minority communities in order to have them participate meaningfully in addressing the fundamental questions of their documentary heritage. This process of meaningful consultation and collaboration is the foundation of LAC's action plan for promoting the vitality and sustainability of the official language minority communities.

For example, this year at the Conference of Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Archivists, a collaborative project was undertaken to elaborate a national strategy for the documentary heritage for Franco-Canadian communities that includes the participation of the territorial archive of the Yukon and the provincial archives of New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, along with the National Library and Archives of Quebec and LAC.

Presently, the member organizations are engaged in important consultations that will determine the principal parameters of the project and the criteria that will be used to document a shared heritage.

It is also envisioned that the formation of this network will afford LAC with the opportunity to share with the official language minority communities its growing expertise in the digital realm. Indeed, the transition from analogue to digital communications can empower these communities to transcend the limitations of geographic isolation by enhancing the communications between community members and provide better communications with federal government departments. Social networking offers many opportunities for community building, and LAC, in partnership with the communities, can help document the particularities of this transition to the digital reality of the 21st century.

Mr. Chairman, the promotion of Canada's linguistic duality is a core principle at the heart of the modernization project at LAC. In fulfilling our mandate to provide Canadians continued access to their documentary heritage, we will continue to work with the language minority communities to ensure that their heritage is also properly captured.

Thank you. I would be happy to respond to your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Caron.

Without further ado, we'll begin the first round with Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome, Mr. Caron and Mr. Melanson.

I'm a bit confused. I heard what you said. That's all well and good; it's even exemplary. However, the mark you got from the commissioner is not very good; it's a D. You also got a failing mark in one or two areas. How do you explain that?

[Daniel J. Caron]

I'm very much aware that the overall mark is not very high. That's because the commissioner put the emphasis on part VII of the Official Languages Act, that is to say consultation with the communities. You have to understand that Library and Archives Canada is an organization that doesn't have programs, in fact, barely a very little program at National Archives of Canada. So our organization has no tradition of consultation with communities outside its federal mandate. That gives us a very low mark. Little work has been done with the outside.

The modernization project has put in place a new collaborative approach with all communities. Last week, I signed a request from the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo to connect all the archives of the francophone missionaries across the country. That had never been done and that's what we're doing now.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

How long have you been there, Mr. Caron?

[Daniel J. Caron]

I've been in my position since April 2009.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Who was responsible before that?

[Daniel J. Caron]

It was Mr. Wilson.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Melanson, were you there before that?

[Mark Melanson, Senior Director General, Office of the Senior Director General - Corporate Resourcing Branch, Library and Archives Canada]

I've been involved in the official languages file since April of this year.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

How long have you been involved in the file?

[Mark Melanson]

I've been involved in the official languages file since April of this year.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

So we can't accuse you of what was done when you weren't there. Note that the amendments to the act adopted in 2005 came into force in 2006. You say you are in the first year of a four-year plan. That means that, for two or three years, not much was done with regard to part VII of the Official Languages Act.

[Daniel J. Caron]

A number of aspects were established, such as the Canada Project.

Pardon me, I gave you the wrong answer. I've been at Library and Archives Canada for six years, but I've been at the head of the institution since 2009.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

That's what I meant, at the head. In that capacity, you are responsible for the act's implementation.

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, absolutely. Before that, a number of things were done, perhaps not as rigorously as they are being done now, but, with the Canada Project, among other things, there are aspects that engage the country's official language communities.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

May we have a copy of that four-year plan?

[Daniel J. Caron]

Yes, we'll send it to the clerk.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

In that plan—I haven't seen it—do you plan periodic, annual or semi-annual consultations with the communities, not with the provinces or provincial or territorial agencies but with the communities?

[Daniel J. Caron]

The project as such operates on an ongoing basis. Project officers met on Monday and are doing so on an ongoing basis as well. We started with the provincial network in order to go after the various players, and new players are joining it as we go along. So I would say that it's ongoing. It isn't once or twice a year; it's really a project that is designed to build a French Canadian archival network. That's the project as such. It's not something that comes up again periodically, but it's a project that should produce results in 18 or 24 months, I believe.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You say "on an ongoing basis"; that's fine, but the official language communities are organized in provincial or territorial associations that have an annual base, which moves to the capital a few times a year. I want to ensure that contact won't be by chance, but rather will be systematic, and that contact with representatives of the communities will be planned on a regular basis.

I'm absolutely convinced that, at that point, projects and collaboration will follow. However, even without that rigour, that communication discipline, it will be done as it's done in a number of other departments. With all due respect to the other departments, Mr. Caron, it's a bit of a mess. If I clearly understand your remarks, that's not your intention.

[Daniel J. Caron]

I share your opinion, and we want to be very rigorous. However, I must tell you that not everyone is interested in this archival project. That's why we started with the provincial archives, which are leading us to the French Canadian associations, and those that are interested will indeed participate, but that will be done in a rigorous and systematic manner. As to whether it will be in cooperation with the major associations, I can't tell you that for the moment.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I have an example of a possible project. In the National Capital Region, there is a French-language daily, Le Droit, that will soon be celebrating its centenary. Unfortunately, not all its archives have been digitized. Could there be a cooperative effort between the Canadian archives and Le Droit to digitize all its archives so as to make them available?

[Daniel J. Caron]

We would have to discuss that, but we aren't engaged in digitization projects. We are currently involved in joint catalogue development projects so that people know where information is, whether it's available. We aren't involved in an extensive digitization project.