Official Languages Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[Don Head]

As I pointed out, there are several things that we've done, including starting with the issue of enhancing the awareness of supervisors and managers, setting performance objectives in people's performance agreements so that we're moving the yardsticks. We've set very specific goals. Although I've indicated that we're doing work in terms of increasing the awareness of people, that for me is not the end-all and be-all.

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

There's a problem. The Department of Justice or Correctional Service of Canada are always there to impose penalties on people who break the law, when those same organizations, which are there to represent the population, commit offences. These are violations of the act. Don't you agree?

[Don Head]

Yes, as I've indicated, we recognize the deficiencies and we're working on them. We have a very specific plan to address the gaps.

The problems, as you've pointed out, have not developed overnight. But I'm pushing the—

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

I'm going to ask you a bilingual question. Who was asleep at the switch pendant tout ce temps? The Official Languages Act has been around for 40 years. There's only one prison for women and only one officially bilingual province in all of the Atlantic region, but we get complaints about a person not being served in their own language.

[Don Head]

I'd be glad to get the information on the specific complaint so that we can action it.

I have to point out that 10 years ago there was only one prison in the entire country for women. Part of the reason for building the regional facilities at that time was to recognize the needs of women from different parts of the country.

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

How many bilingual people are there in the prison in Truro?

[Don Head]

I can get you the information this afternoon.

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

How many bilingual people in Miramichi?

[Don Head]

I can get you the numbers for—

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

I would like to know this. For all the prisons in the Atlantic region, what is the ratio of bilingual people and who are the persons responsible? I'd like to know if, among those persons responsible, there are bilingual supervisors and what percentage they represent.

[Don Head]

Okay.

I will provide the committee with the breakdown of the positions for each of the institutions in the Atlantic region.

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

Do you include official languages in your departmental reports?

[Don Head]

Yes.

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

Could we see the report?

[Don Head]

The report to the Clerk of the Privy Council? Yes.

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

You said that people have filed complaints.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Godin, you will be able to come back to that question on the second round.

Mr. Gourde, it's your turn.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here today.

In his review, the Commissioner of Official Languages no doubt saw that there were some deficiencies at Correctional Service of Canada, but after that observation, which you just you quite candidly acknowledged, did you put an action plan in place? Did you look into the problematic nature of the situation? What steps are you going to take to improve things?

[Don Head]

As I mentioned earlier, we've taken this on at the senior executive table within the organization and looked at the work we need to do in relation to parts IV, V, VI, and VII of the act.

Just to give you some examples, in relation to providing active offer to the public, our score several years ago was absolutely dismal. It was 0%, when we go back to 2005-06. The following year it went up to only 4%, and then to 32%. I've set a very high-level goal that's intended to get us to 100% in the next three years. I've established very specific targets for that. We've also implemented a self-audit regime so that sites and managers can audit their own performances.

As well, through my office on a weekly basis, every work site that has a public phone number is contacted to verify whether the active offer is made, whether the individual is referred to somebody who can assist them in the language of their choice, how long it takes them to get somebody on the line that they can talk to, as well as the quality of the service that's being provided. That has been put in place.

Some of the other items that were identified in the report were in relation to providing health care professionals who were bilingual to provide services to offenders. I've set very rigid targets to ensure that we have the right capacity across the country so we meet our target. We're up to 50% this year, 80% next year, and 100% the following year.

We are starting to engage in activities that will help us with part VII in terms of the advancement of English and French across the country in the communities. As I pointed out, I'm going to be engaging the official languages commissioner specifically on this for his advice and guidance as to how our organization can best do that.

As a starting point, I've asked that all our managers across the country ensure through their citizens advisory committees that they're reaching out to the other official language community in the community where they're located.

I should mention that we've also sent out materials to about 140 different communities in the other official language than the one they are deemed to be in, inviting people in the community to engage us and help us in discussions as to how we can advance the minority language community in the area we're located.

We will continue with our investment of moneys in language training for staff, and ideally move to be proactive. One of the challenges that has been identified for us is that individuals do not need to be bilingual or deemed to be bilingual in order to advance within the organization. So we need to do some proactive language training assignments to prepare the next wave of leaders to come within the organization.

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

Let's talk about what might be at the root of the staffing problem, and please correct me if I'm wrong. If there are 70% anglophones and 30% francophones in a prison, how do you respect the bilingualism criteria among staff? Could you have a prison with 95% anglophone employees and only 5% of people who can provide services to francophones? Do you follow some kind of ratio? How do you do it?

[Don Head]

It is one of our challenges for some of our more remote locations, remote institutions. As an example, at Grande Cache, Alberta, our penitentiary located there, there is no significant francophone community. We have to look outside. The nearest communities are places like Hinton and Edson, and then four hours away, Edmonton. So we do have challenges.

We look to encourage bilingual staff to move there, even if it's for a two-year assignment, to try to provide that service. We look to make sure that we have a capacity, one way or another, to meet the needs of individuals who are requesting services in the other official language, whether it be English or French, depending on the location of the facility.

We know the breakdown of the offender population for each of the institutions, for each of the regions, and that is factored into our human resource planning and staffing document. We take that into account and strive to ensure that we're hiring staff with a bilingual capacity. Where it is difficult, we're making additional investments in language training so individuals can learn the other language and have that capacity within the facility. We're trying to tackle this the best way we can, given the challenges associated with some of our remote locations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Gourde.

We'll now start the second round with Mr. Murphy.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Head, I have a few questions for you about your official languages champion, Leslie MacLean.

I have a simple question: why isn't she here?

[Don Head]

Originally she was going to come when we were first scheduled to be here. It's just that our schedules haven't been able to match up for this day.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I'm newly new, or I'm renewed here at this committee. Almost every other time we've had a department in to talk about this, we had the champion here, and it's important because they're the champion. For instance, they might be able to answer questions better than you. I am from Atlantic Canada, as you know, and I'm also a lawyer, as you also know. In the CALDECH case, the Supreme Court of Canada found that the northern Ontario development agency needed to consult minority populations and provide services. This is a positively mandated legal duty on governments—particularly the federal government, because of the strength of the federal official languages statute compared with some of the provincial statutes.

So consulting minority communities in Atlantic Canada is something I would ask you about if you were the champion. I realize you have a big operation to run. But when did you meet with, say, Jean-Marie Nadeau. Do you know who Jean-Marie Nadeau is? Have you met with him, and those kinds of stakeholders? You have?