Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That's a very legitimate question. And it's definitely central to our concerns with regard to service to the public.
CBSA has 158 designated bilingual offices in Canada. Your example is a good one in that, in certain locations, all offices are designated bilingual, such as in Quebec, for example. As you move farther west, a selection of offices are bilingual. In Saskatchewan, for example, there is one office, the one at North Portal. There is Coutts in Alberta and Emerson in Manitoba, and so on.
These are designated offices, and you're entirely right to expect bilingual services there; we moreover advertise bilingual service there.
The purpose of the work we've done to date is to draw a distinction among the problems we have: systemic problems or training or adjustment problems.
We have the largest number of complaints in five places: Ottawa airport, Windsor, Toronto airport, Peace Bridge and the Lansdowne Bridge. Lansdowne, I believe, is the place where Ms. Houle ran into trouble
Our action plan for service to the public is undoubtedly the most demanding and rigorous action plan.
Historically, filling positions, generating a critical mass of bilingual people at certain locations, has been a major challenge. That's not an excuse, but it is a major challenge for the agency.
Today, as a result of work schedules, we need a certain critical mass of people who are fully bilingual.
You're right. Active offer, which means saying, "Hello! Bonjour!" is easy to provide, but we expect more than that. People should be able to be served in French without having to speak to a second person, without being treated like second-class citizens because the first person was unable to respond to them.
We're identifying all border crossings where there are challenges and, for every crossing, looking at where we have problems regarding training, management and critical mass in staffing areas.
The approach we are planning for certain places is a very comprehensive approach. At certain locations, including Lansdowne, the critical mass of bilingual people must be increased. We're doing calculations to determine the necessary percentage so that we can have one or two service points where people can have access to bilingual services.
This is quite a complex issue. In certain locations, we have very few or even no complaints. Service appears to be appropriate.
The five posts that I mentioned to you receive approximately 30% of all traffic into Canada; that's a lot. At Windsor alone, for example, we receive four to five million travellers every year. We get a few complaints, but, as madam said earlier, one complaint is one complaint too many.