Evidence of meeting #38 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bilingual.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:05 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, as best we can.
In some of the areas, and for this area in particular--and the commissioner has used this information in some of his findings--the public service employee survey provides input and feedback on a whole range of topics.
9:05 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
No, it was done in 2008.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
But it wasn't done last year, so how can you measure? If that's the tool you use to measure, how can you measure the progress or achievements?
9:05 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I gave that as an example, Chair. It's one of the tools that's used. Certainly this year we now have our report card from the commissioner's office, so that's another piece of information that could be fed into that process.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Can you tell me if the bonuses paid to the executives are linked to the objectives they must meet? Are there any bonuses attached to official languages throughout your executive category?
9:05 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, it's referred to as at-risk pay, Chair, which is maybe a minor distinction, but it may be an important one.
But the short answer is yes, but it's in the whole array of what I am asked to do as a deputy minister.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Could you guess that some of your colleagues who got Fs through the commissioner would have their at-risk pay affected?
9:05 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I couldn't say. That's not for me to decide. I don't know. It may be one factor among many.
I think the challenge for deputy ministers is that there are many things we try to do at the same time. There are many balls in the air, and we do the best job we can. But it's a challenge. It really depends on what you're facing in any one year.
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
9:05 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, everyone.
You are probably aware that your “C” rating is the fourth-lowest rating of all the departments, which means that there is still a great deal of work to be done. You indicated that you will be submitting another report to us in March 2011. I hope some significant changes will have been made by then.
We quite often deal with immigration issues in our riding offices. In many cases, people complain to us rather than to you. You say you received six complaints, but that is practically impossible. In our ridings, we get complaints from people who cannot get services in their official language. Often, it is services in French, obviously.
I was rather disappointed to hear the message for clients that says that all your lines are busy, the call cannot be transferred to a call centre agent and the least busy days are Thursday and Friday.
That means that people cannot call you on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday because you are too busy. A francophone who is trying to reach you will not likely get an answer. You are going to have to give us an explanation, sir, because it is rather disturbing to hear that sort of telephone message. It implies that a person with an extremely important and urgent case will not be able to get service in his language because Thursday and Friday are the least busy days.
Explain that to me.
9:10 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
All I said was that we get a lot of calls at our call centre. It is a real challenge for us. We tell people that there are fewer calls on Thursday and Friday just by way of information. The fact remains that we receive a lot of calls from our clients every day.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I know, because we also get calls. Who do people turn to when they cannot reach you? Their MP. I can tell you that in my riding, the service is not meeting people's needs. There is work that is not being done. Many improvements need to be made. We are acting as a go-between in terms of immigration. In a way, I find that totally unacceptable. It is your job, not ours, to do this work.
I have a question for you about your relationship with the embassies. I do not know whether this is your responsibility or Foreign Affairs', but people have the same problem with the embassies. They cannot get services in both official languages. It is a serious problem.
Do you work as a team or are you completely separate?
9:10 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Certainly as a team. Ms. Deschênes could perhaps give you some more information about that.
9:10 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
At the embassy, the immigration section is mainly responsible for responses regarding cases. As for the employees recruited abroad, the person at reception who takes calls, for example, is an employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs. However, the two departments work closely together to serve clients in both languages. Our officers who work abroad now have a “CCC” linguistic profile. Some older employees like myself still have a “CBC” profile, but all new recruits start at the “CCC” level.
In some countries, though, it is not easy to recruit people who speak French in addition to English and the language of the country. At the main reception desk, people have to be able to provide service in both languages. And when these people take a coffee break, if their replacements do not know French as well, they are supposed to be able to immediately call on an officer who can help them provide service in both official languages.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
9:10 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It does not always happen, but I think that is the idea. Clearly, it is not easy sometimes. I was the official languages champion in one mission abroad. We worked very closely with the local residents to get them to understand their official languages responsibilities.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
If only one person speaks French in an office in a foreign embassy and that person is unavailable because he or she is on sick leave or whatever, then there is no more service in French. It is as simple as that.
9:15 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I have to admit that in some missions we do not have the level we would have liked.
9:15 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
But all the officers are bilingual when they leave Canada. The level for immigration and other programs is “CBC”. We recognize that the system is not perfect.
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
No, it is not perfect; it is far from perfect. There is a great deal of work to be done. We work with people who apply to immigrate in Quebec or Canada, and we are really the go-between because the employees cannot answer these people in French. They are trying to come here and they have documents to fill out. Quite often, these documents are not available in their language. They cannot even be interviewed in their own language. So their applications are often denied because they do not understand well enough. They are not served in their language, so they answer as best they can. That is where we come in.
9:15 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I would like to add one comment. We met with Mr. Nadeau and his team. If you know of any specific cases, I would like you to send them to me.
