Official Languages Committee on Dec. 7th, 2010

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Do you understand that it's a duty to respond to the public?

[William Victor Baker]

Yes.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Not with supervisors, but with the public.

[William Victor Baker]

With the public, absolutely.

It must be understood that most of our employees work at headquarters and do not deal directly with the public. Ours is essentially a department that operates in the policy field. We provide advice to ministers; we work with the agencies associated with the portfolios of the Department of Public Safety. A minority of employees interact directly with the public. That's obviously essential for them. The action plan provides for certain measures to strengthen our competencies in this regard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll continue with Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome to all our witnesses.

You said you had 1,000 employees at your department.

[William Victor Baker]

Roughly.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

How many of them are bilingual?

[William Victor Baker]

Approximately one-third. I have the figure before me: 34%.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thirty-four percent are bilingual?

[William Victor Baker]

No, not bilingual. That's the representation of francophones at the Department of Public Safety.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I'm talking about bilingual people who are able to speak both languages.

[William Victor Baker]

I have the language-of-work figures. There are 331 bilingual supervisory positions.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Three hundred and thirty-one?

[William Victor Baker]

Yes. In addition, 4.8% are currently vacant and 90% meet the linguistic profiles. There is still some work to be done to reach 100%.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

How many of the 331 bilingual persons are francophones, unilingual francophones? Do you have those figures?

[William Victor Baker]

I don't think so, no. However, I imagine the figure is available and we can—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

How many of those 1,000 persons are unilingual francophones?

[William Victor Baker]

Unilingual francophones?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Yes.

[William Victor Baker]

Very few. There are two offices in Quebec.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Unilingual?

[William Victor Baker]

Some people are unilingual francophones, but there are not very many of them.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Even out of 7 million people?

[William Victor Baker]

One million people.