Official Languages Committee on Feb. 1st, 2011

[Christine Desloges]

There are 34. We also have a network--

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

That means that eight of your offices are not bilingual.

[Christine Desloges]

Yes, but in those regions, there is an alternative. For example, in the Toronto region, we have a bilingual office that provides these services.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

But there are a lot of Francophones in Toronto.

[Christine Desloges]

That's why--

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

You talk about 10% bilingual services in Ontario. That is a concern, since there is a large Francophone community there.

[Christine Desloges]

Yes, but I also talked about all of our front-line staff who work at the counter. Of those positions, 41% are bilingual, and the incumbents meet the requirements. There are 210 bilingual positions. All the incumbents meet the requirements and are bilingual.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Guay.

We will move now to Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome to the committee.

Before I begin this morning, I would just like to say that staff in my Bathurst office asked me to congratulate you on the services provided by Passport Canada. When things work efficiently, it's important to say so. I was asked to be sure to pass on that message.

Since the changes brought about by 9/11, people need passports. Indeed, I think everybody in my riding should all have a passport by now. In my area, it's more like a Passport Canada office than an MP's office. The number of people coming in is unbelievable. There are dozens of them every day. It is quite a service that we provide. It should be provided by Passport Canada, but in our area of North-Eastern New Brunswick, we are not entitled to it. I want to commend you for that part of your service, for the quick turnaround and even the communication between our office and the Passport Canada office.

I also have some questions. In your presentation, you referred to the A and B ratings you received, but you didn't talk about the “E” rating. I would like to try and understand why you received that rating, and where the gaps were. I know that you explained this, but I'd like to have a better understanding. You say that you had no obligation, but it's also possible that people didn't need a passport at the time. So, there was no urgency in that regard. Now, however, people do need to communicate extensively with you. It's not like before. Nobody can leave the country without a passport. The time will come when it will be the same as in Europe. I think it's perfectly normal for people to always carry their passport with them. I think we are moving in that direction.

Do you think the regulations or that attitude should change, since you have to meet new obligations?

[Christine Desloges]

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your kind words and comments about customer service in your riding.

In terms of our obligations under the Act, we—myself included—take them very seriously. As I noted in my opening presentation, we need to make improvements in two areas. We are dealing with this two ways.

First of all, we have been told we need a better management program. We were doing things, but they were not included in an official plan. The evidence of that is that we received good ratings for customer service, employee management, workplace integration of minority groups, and so on. However, even if you asked me, I would not be in a position to present a formal report explaining and recounting every aspect of our story. We don't have one, because we have been extremely busy. Our goal was, first and foremost, to improve customer service.

As a result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and Americans' need for security, it is now necessary to have a passport to enter the United States. I must admit that our volumes increased by about 50% during that period. As a result, we had to increase our staff. The fact is that even Ms. Marquis worked at the counter and helped out providing service to our clients. At that point, the priority was serving Canadians. In terms of the paperwork, mea culpa: we didn't spend much time on it.

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

If you didn't spend much time on it, that means the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs wasn't asking you to. He wasn't asking you for a report.

[Christine Desloges]

The deputy minister was asking us to provide services in both official languages, to ensure there would be no complaints, and to effectively serve our clients.

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

So he wasn't asking for a report.

[Christine Desloges]

In terms of client services, I prepared a report, just as my predecessor did. We did improve service. We reviewed the comments made by the Commissioner of Official Languages and prepared an action plan that covers a three-year period. It will help us to formalize and consolidate what we were already doing.

In my discussion with the Assistant Commissioner of Official Languages, she said that it was clear that what we're doing in the area of official languages was intuitive, because otherwise, our performance would not have been what it was. However, it is important to put some structure around it. And that is what we did. Measures will be incorporated into our performance agreements. Every quarter, at the executive committee level, we will be reviewing what can be done to improve our performance.

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

There is something I don't understand. You have worked very hard and are proud of that. I know that certain changes were made, unless I was dreaming.

However, I do recall that, in Vancouver, someone applied for a passport but was unable to receive a passport in French, with the appropriate French accents. Do you recall that problem? Passport Canada had a policy whereby information should not be written in French, in a supposedly bilingual country such as ours. If it were bilingual, Supreme Court justices would be bilingual—but I don't intend to start attacking them this morning. With all that you have accomplished, I do not understand why no mention is made of official languages anywhere in your report to the government or that the department made no such request of you.

[Christine Desloges]

It is part of the requirements we are expected to meet—in other words, our services must be provided in both official languages. That's why we survey our clients to identify their level of satisfaction. In our last survey, the satisfaction rate was 97%. We asked a very specific question of those Canadians who took part in this survey, to determine whether they were satisfied with the quality of in-person and telephone service in terms of official languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We move now to Mr. Gourde.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for Official Languages]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ms. Desloges, Ms. Marquis, thank you for your presentation.

It is absolutely true that Passport Canada provides excellent service. As members of Parliament, we are on the front line when people have criticisms to raise. In the last five years, I have never heard any criticism from my fellow citizens with respect to Passport Canada's services. There is an office several kilometers from my riding, on the other side of the Quebec City bridge. My office is located on the south shore. Eighty per cent of the population lives less than 15 kilometers away from the Passport Canada office. I want to underscore the fact that you are doing a good job.

In spite of that, you received a rating of E. Were you surprised by the mark you were given by the Office of the Commissioner for Official Languages? And if not, were you expecting it? What do you intend to do to improve things? Based on your own analysis, were there just a couple of small issues to be resolved to ensure better compliance with the Act?

[Christine Desloges]

First of all, we should have done a better job of responding to the questionnaire we received from the Office of the Commissioner. We were actually doing certain things that are not reflected in our response.

I refer to 133 clinics that we gave in both official languages in all the remote areas of the country, in border zones. That was not mentioned in our report. We admit that was a mistake. It is one of the improvements we will be making. We will be doing a better job of telling our own story. We will also set more precise targets in order to focus more effectively on those areas where improvements are needed and track our progress. Those are some of the things we will be doing.

Also, how will we go about consulting minority communities? As I already mentioned, in cooperation with the Assistant Commissioner, we have begun to look at what was relevant. Because our service is a transactional one, we see our clients only once every five or ten years. We are not a department that provides grants. We do not offer training services to people on a monthly basis. So we will be looking at what can be done.

One thing we will do with our regional directors is hold local consultations. People work in the local communities. We will also be reviewing our staffing plans. In Winnipeg, for example, a bilingual employee will be retiring. So, we intend to consult with the minority communities so that they are aware that a bilingual position will be available.

Furthermore, we will also be consulting other communities. Some departments take specific actions in order to meet the needs of minority groups. If we can work in cooperation with them, it will be positive in the sense that this will help us meet our obligations under the Act.

We are currently looking at setting up a network of champions in the regions to identify best practices. That is the kind of thing that is done at the local level. For example, what can we do to introduce the kind of best practices used by a group in Vancouver? What can we do in other areas of Canada to strengthen our capacity with our available resources? How can we develop better tools? If another department has tools that could help us, we will go out and get those tools. All this is part of what we will be doing to benefit from best practices, to quickly incorporate them into our own way of working and continue to move forward.

We did identify one area where we received complaints. I mentioned that we had received 15 complaints out of a total of 9.2 million transactions over a two-year period. Six of those complaints had to do with the services provided by the Commissionaires who work at the entrance to our offices. The problem is that six Commissionaires were not bilingual. To remedy the problem, we added a clause to our service agreement with the Commissionaires, stipulating that all new Commissionaires must be bilingual working in our offices. We replaced three unilingual Commissionaires and we reminded three other Commissionaires, who were able to provide service in French, that services must be bilingual.

We are currently reviewing available tools that could support staff and Commissionaires to ensure that their client-based approach is bilingual. So, we are currently working on improvements in a number of areas with a view to enhancing our performance.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

I see that you have taken the time to reflect. You have an action plan and a strategic plan. How will you go about assessing whether all these efforts will yield the expected results?

[Christine Desloges]

First of all, in the plan we will be tabling with the clerk, we have defined performance measures for each of these items, in order to identify how we will actually achieve the desired results. Also, as I mentioned in my presentation, we will be incorporating this into the performance agreements of every one of our managers, including members of the executive committee and all of our managers in the regions.

That is how we intend to measure our results. We will be identifying practical items. They will have to look at training plans for our staff, bilingualism levels, position profiles and classifications for their respective offices. All of that will be part of the performance agreement to be introduced starting in April.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gourde.

We will now begin our “compact” second round, to be sure we stay on schedule.

Without any further ado, Mr. Bélanger, you have the floor.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

What do you mean by “compact”?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

It means that everyone will have a four-minute turn, Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Ms. Desloges, I asked a question about the fact that you don't have to report to Canadian Heritage. On the other hand, I think you should report to the Treasury Board Secretariat.