Official Languages Committee on Feb. 1st, 2011

[François Guimont]

Second-language training is offered to all our employees, whether they are Francophone or Anglophone.

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

On an equal basis?

[François Guimont]

Yes. I referred earlier to 9 teachers and the agreement we entered into with the School of Public Service. I did not want there to be a line-up for training. So, I discussed it with Ms. Lorenzato. The fact is that people were waiting for their turn to arrive, something that can be very frustrating. Under the agreement, our people have much quicker access to this service. It covers both French and English. The teacher can train individual employees in French or in English, depending on their needs and what they're seeking in terms of training.

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

So individual employees make the request and it's accepted. There is a process in place, and specific training is offered.

[François Guimont]

Yes.

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

You don't accept one person's request and then refuse someone else's.

[François Guimont]

No. Often it's connected to the position. Approximately 80% of our positions in the department are considered bilingual. When people move from one position to another, they have to meet the language requirements of the new position, whether they are Francophones interested in a position requiring knowledge of English, or the reverse. If proficiency in the language is imperative, there will obviously be a problem, but language training is offered based on the priority of the positions involved.

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

You say the percentage is 80%, but the OCOL survey states that 68% of Francophone employees and 73% of Anglophone employees are satisfied with their ability to communicate in writing in the official language of their choice.

[François Guimont]

The most recent public service survey that my employees took part in showed that 80% of our employees were satisfied and that they are able to communicate in the language of their choice. I was a little surprised because that percentage is a little lower than the one for the public service as a whole. The average across the public service is 85%, compared to 80% for my department, which is still not bad. That 5% difference surprised me somewhat, given the number of initiatives that we are taking to encourage people along those lines. However, there can be variations between departments. I am not in a position to explain that 5% difference.

Diane, I don't know whether you have any explanation for that.

[Diane Lorenzato]

We have taken several initiatives to ensure that all our employees felt comfortable working in the language of their choice. For example, we are preparing a kit on language of work and will ensure that supervisors understand that is their responsibility to create that working environment.

We have also changed our orientation program. It mentions the responsibilities, not only of supervisors, but of employees as well when it comes to working in the language of their choice. The survey was carried out in 2007. Since then we have made an effort to change the organizational culture. We hope that the results of the 2011 survey will be a little different.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We will move now to Ms. Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is very interesting. I particularly want to congratulate you for achieving perfectly acceptable results, something that is greatly appreciated. Personally, I hope all departments can one day have that kind of profile. If all the departments also received an “A” and “B” overall, that would be fantastic.

Earlier, you talked about specificities associated with official language minority communities, both Francophone and Anglophone. Could you explain what your Official Language Minority Communities Secretariat is doing to stay on top of the needs of both Francophones and Anglophones who are part of minority communities, and to ensure that their specific needs are considered at every stage of the decision-making process?

[François Guimont]

I will let Ms. Lorenzato answer that question, Mr. Chairman, but I would like to correct one point I mentioned earlier. One of the numbers I gave you was incorrect and that has been bothering me. We have 8,000 bilingual positions in the department out of a total of 13,000. I talked about 80% earlier, because I was thinking of 8,000 positions. That actually represents 63% of positions. I want that to be clear for everyone.

Go ahead, Diane, please.

[Diane Lorenzato]

In 2007, we set up a small secretariat which is 100% responsible for relations with minority communities. So, we now have employees who devote 100% of their time to networking, cooperating and consulting with minority groups across the country.

Their mandate is also to review all Treasury Board submissions and memoranda to ensure that the programs and activities that the department brings forward comply with Part VII of the Act.

They also take part in events organized by these groups, and we work with all of them. For example, we work with Francophone associations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, Acadian federations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Economic Development and Employability Network, the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation, or CEDEC, the Quebec Community Groups and the Community Table.

We are in contact with these associations on a daily basis. I have a team of three which devotes all of its time to this. They participate in forums. attend meetings and hold discussions on a regular basis. We also promote exchanges between our regional offices and these federations or associations at the local level, and we work with them to develop locally-targeted action plans. We have been very active since 2007 in that respect.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much. It was very interesting.

Mr. Chairman, I am sharing my time with Bernard Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to thank the witnesses for being here. You seem to be extremely rigourous and professional in your approach to official languages in your department. I consider that to be very positive. Not that the previous witnesses from other departments did not, but one has the sense that in your department—and I may be mistaken—it really is part and parcel of the way you do things. It's not just a commitment you make; that is really the way it is. It's real and one has the sense that it is real.

I would like to quickly come back to the Portal we saw earlier. I don't know whether Mr. Olivier can go back to it. Perhaps you could quickly answer my question in the meantime.

Is the purpose of the Portal per se to attract people to come and work for you? What exactly is the purpose of the Portal?

[Francine Kennedy]

The real purpose of the Portal is to promote linguistic duality. We are working very hard to ensure that the Portal is national in scope. It stays inside the department, but the whole idea is really to try and develop partners around the country.

In fact, we have set up an advisory board, made up of stakeholders from different regions of the country, to oversee the work associated with the Portal. For example, the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick is a member of the advisory board. Other members include representatives from Manitoba, the University of Ottawa and the Commissioner of Official Languages in the National Capital Region—in other words, at the federal level.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

In terms of promoting the Portal, there is obviously so much material on the Internet that it is not necessarily possible to know about everything. I was not aware of it.

[Francine Kennedy]

Yes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Actually, there are a lot of things on the Internet that I'm not aware of.

I'd like to talk about promotion of the Portal per se to people working at the political level—both elected members and everyone working in the departments—as well as to students in all the schools across the country by means of contests, such as quizzes. Do you have an action plan in place to raise awareness of the Portal?

[Francine Kennedy]

Yes. We are starting our second year of promotion. We will be involved in much more active promotion this time. One thing we did was purchase our spot on Google. So, when you ask language-related questions, the language Portal should pop up among the initial results. Young people use it a lot. We also promote it in the schools.

And, through the strategic advisory board, we are trying to find other ways of promoting it all across the country. We are getting a lot of support from each of the members. As a result, we will be doing a lot more promotion.

The first few years were spent developing it and ensuring that we have the right information. Now we are really entering a period of very major and active promotion, in order to make it accessible to everyone and further its popularity.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

What I saw a little earlier struck me as really quite extraordinary. It would be great if you could get the home page of the site back up on the screen. It's really very well done, in addition to being very easy to use, very user-friendly.

As I see it, sharing is important. The whole rationale for this Standing Committee on Official Languages is to improve the use of our official languages in Canada, obviously in any and every way possible. Sharing is a responsibility for each of the departments, in my opinion, and you already seem to be assuming that responsibility. A number of official languages champions from various departments have come to meet with us. Is there a league of champions where you can get together and share your successes? Once again, I think everyone fundamentally accepts the notion that helping to improve the French fact and the status of Canada's official languages is intrinsic and that it must systematically be part of everything that goes on—which seems to be the case in your department.

Do you have ample opportunity to share with other departments the successes and positive results you have achieved?

[Francine Kennedy]

I am what is known as the official languages champion for our department and, as such, I sit on the Committee of Assistant Deputy Ministers on Official Languages. It is a committee where we can share information about our successes and other issues that may arise in each of our individual departments. I am also a member of the Council of the Network of Official Languages Champions in the public service. For example, when we launched the Portal, I sent a letter providing the electronic address for the Portal to all the public service champions, and we very actively promoted the Portal to departments across the public service. We have methods of promoting this tool to a wide variety of users.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Earlier I referred to games or contests aimed at students. Do you think there should be something similar for public servants, as a way for people to activate--

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

You presented your product to us and I will personally pledge to add it to my list of favourites, both here and in my riding office, and to share it with my staff.