Evidence of meeting #39 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.
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
They can be lawyers or, in some cases, consultants.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Are there are lot of requests to change in the middle of the proceedings?
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
This year, unless I'm mistaken, because I don't have the numbers in front of me, we have had 125 requests.
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes, to change the language. I don't have the percentages for requests from French to English and from English to French.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.
We will continue with the Parliamentary Secretary, Mr. Rickford.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, everyone.
I have a copy of the IRB Official Languages Plan 2009-2011. My questions this morning will focus specifically, as you said, Mr. Coakeley, on Part III of the Official Languages Act.
We only have seven minutes. Do you have a copy of the primary objectives?
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Initiative No. 1 sets out to:
Develop clear procedures, directives or guidelines on the interpretation and application of official languages in the administration of justice, Part III of the OLA, specifically on a number of key decisions.
I have two questions about this initiative. Can you be more specific about what stage you're at? It's almost 2011. Is this enough? Under the heading "Update/Comments", it mentions "briefing notes have been sent to employees to ensure compliance in the application of Official Languages."
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Yes. I think you also have a copy of the memorandum that I just spoke about, which was sent to all board employees on June 24, 2009. This memorandum explains the official languages obligations in hearings. The memorandum is the briefing note referred to on page 1. We still need to modify our procedure manuals to take into account the instructions in the briefing note.
The confusion surrounding the case of Mr. Bolanos Blanco led us to send a detailed briefing note to all employees and decision-makers to inform them of their official languages obligations. Furthermore, because of Bill C-11 concerning refugees, some of our plans in the past 12 to 18 months have been integrated into our reform proposal. All our procedure manuals will be revised based on the reform, and we will take advantage of the opportunity to include clearer instructions where necessary.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Initiative No. 2 reads as follows: "Develop a communication program and a learning or awareness program targeting the needs of each group of Registry employees…".
Same as before, can you tell us how you are going to manage this, and give us examples of measures you've taken?
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
I'm going to ask Mr. Gascon to answer the question. He is our champion and chairs the committee that prepared the document.
Serge Gascon Director General, Corporate Planning and Services Branch, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
This is without a doubt the first time the IRB has developed an official languages plan that was approved by our human resources committee. As for this initiative specifically, we are going to work closely with the Operations Branch to make sure that the Registry Office is informed. This stems from the memorandum that was sent in June 2009 to raise the awareness of Registry employees about official languages. We are going to use the opportunity to put more focus on this aspect. We are going to be more vigilant about making sure that employees are familiar with rights relating to official languages.
Director General, Corporate Planning and Services Branch, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Right now, we are working with human resources, then we will work closely with the Operations Branch. We are going to focus on those places where Registry Office employees need to be made more aware of the official language obligations. We will focus our efforts so that we get the best performance possible. This is a first that was developed by the IRB to follow up on a quarterly basis and to see how the objectives will progress. We are giving ourselves two years to see what will come out of this. We are already seeing results for each of the objectives.
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Thank you. This next question may be for you as well, Mr. Gascon.
In a broader context, this committee has been looking at best practices across departments. We have departments with different grades, if you will. Interestingly, in some areas of their departments they've done very well, and in others they haven't. There's been a grade to establish an overall performance.
I would encourage you to take a look at some of those. Eventually, I think, we would want to understand, and we're trying to pull out, best practices across different departments to see how they apply.
I have less than 30 seconds here to deal with objective three, so maybe I'll get right to the point here.
Your priorities--
December 16th, 2010 / 9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
I would suggest that you keep it for the next round. We don't have the same timing, I guess.
Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
I just checked something, and I provided some incorrect information to Mr. Godin a minute ago. Could I just correct that for the record?