Official Languages Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[Don Head]

My regional deputy commissioner, Atlantic region, has been working closely with the federal council down there. As a matter of fact, in the Atlantic region, she and one of her counterparts actually received an award for the work they're doing to advance official languages within the Atlantic region.

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

I might drill down on that and ask how many times you have met. I mean you as a group, not you as a person. How many times have you met with minority language communities in Atlantic Canada? Are there documents that have sprung from those meetings?

[Don Head]

The short answer is that we have not met enough. That's why part of our plan is to find an approach that is, for lack of a better word, more aggressive, more intense, than we have taken in the past. Part of my personal discussions with the official languages commissioner will focus on hearing his suggestions on what we can do to advance this cause even further, given some of the communities we're in.

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

As for making benchmarks, which we're all interested in, can you provide the committee, maybe through Ms. MacLean, the length, breadth, and results of the consultations with minority language communities? I'm particularly interested in Atlantic Canada, but this is a national body. It shouldn't be too difficult to put that in a letter form. Then, when and if you're back here in a year's time, we might find that you've doubled the number, length, breadth, and reportage of your meetings. It makes sense to me. Is that possible?

[Don Head]

I'd be glad to provide that information to the committee. If you have me in a year's time here, I'm quite confident you'll notice a significant advancement in terms of the commitments I'm making.

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

My other concern is where the champion is. I'm using the other side of my brain on the corrections issues. I'm also from the land of Ashley Smith and Bernard Richard. I've met with Howard Sapers more than I've met with you. I kind of know what you've got before you in terms of treating offenders who have mental health issues. It's a gargantuan task, and the mental health issues—correct me if I'm wrong—are under the domain of the health section of your group headed by Leslie MacLean. Am I right? I would see that as one of your biggest challenges aside from the onslaught of customers you're going to get from Conservative legislation. That's another issue. The mental health issues have to be number one on your desk right now. It seems to me—correct me if I'm wrong—she would be fairly knee-deep in that as well and she's the official languages champion. Why was she chosen as champion if someone else could be champion, somebody who could come to meetings? Do you think she's overloaded? Is mental health a priority for you?

[Don Head]

The answer to the question of why Leslie MacLean is the official languages champion is partly that she volunteered, which is always a good approach for anybody who wants to be a champion of anything. She has taken on that role very seriously. I would indicate quite adamantly that it is at no cost to any part of her other job. She's very active in terms of engagement with the regions particularly as it relates to the Atlantic region. My regional deputy commissioner there, Thérèse LeBlanc, is very, very active on this file. I would almost declare her to be the second champion or unofficial champion as well in that part of the country.

In terms of your last question, yes, mental health is a significant priority for the organization.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Murphy.

Thank you.

We'll continue with Ms. Guay.

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

It's Mr. Nadeau's turn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Nadeau, you're up.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Head, I presume you're familiar with hockey. Surely, you've seen a game or two here or there on television. Can you imagine a coach taking part in a major tournament without bringing the goalie? It's as if you didn't bring your goalie today. It's extremely important for us that your comments be credible. It's clear that your official languages champion is a key person. You're the assistant commissioner, and it would have been good for the commissioner to be here too because what we're talking about here today is very important.

[Don Head]

I am the commissioner.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

You're right. I didn't read it correctly. I apologize.

So, mister coach, you forgot your goalie. It's too bad because we have very important questions.

I have a lot of difficulty accepting what you're saying. In fact, the situation is appalling. You're going to meet with the commissioner, or at least people from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, on February 17, 2011. Has your action plan already been prepared or are you waiting to meet with the commissioner? Are you just telling us things to lull us to sleep and make it all sweetness and light? Clearly, in light of your comments and given the results we got from the Commissioner of Official Languages for Correctional Service of Canada, I don't have the impression that you are on a path that the committee is satisfied with. Have you already established an action plan to respond to this appalling official languages situation?

I didn't write report, we all know. The commissioner answers to parliamentarians in the House of Commons. Do you have the report? Could you get it to us right away so that we know what direction you're taking or if these are only ideas, good ideas, leads. We know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but it remains nonetheless that the path isn't exactly satisfactory. Do you have an action plan?

[Don Head]

I understand.

We have our action plan. It has been drafted. It's a plan I want to discuss specifically with the official languages commissioner. He's the one who's going to be grading us, so I want him to understand the efforts we're making to help us identify whether there are still gaps that we need to address; to identify for me whether the targets that I set, which I briefly mentioned earlier, are appropriate, whether they're aggressive enough, and whether there are some other things that I need to take into account.

To be honest, Mr. Chair, regarding the analogy, hockey's not necessarily my favourite sport--I have others--but I understand the comparison you're making. But as the coach, ultimately, I'm responsible for the team, so I didn't see the comparison you're using about me needing to put my goalie up to defend me.

As the commissioner of the organization, I am responsible for this. I'm taking very serious ownership of this, and making my executive committee--my senior leadership team--take very serious ownership of this. And through my personal direct engagement with the official languages commissioner, I'm taking our plan, which our committee spent significant time going through, and strengthening it to get his comments so that we have a good, strong, viable plan that ultimately will pass the test.

I'm quite comfortable, after my meeting with the official languages commissioner, with providing a copy to this committee so that they can see that our plan is not just good intentions but concrete actions that my organization and I are going to pursue over the next couple of years.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Nadeau.

Now we'll move on to Mrs. Boucher.

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

Good morning, Mr. Head and Mr. Macaulay.

I'm a little confused. I'd like to know if, before you read the Commissioner of Official Languages' evaluation, you had an action plan to help people in an official language minority situation. It's now 2011, and I'd like to know if you had taken measures previously to fill in the gaps. When you hire someone you describe as bilingual, do they have to be 10% bilingual? 25%? 50%? How do you evaluate that person's bilingualism? In my case, I speak English, but I don't consider myself bilingual. I still have trouble with verb tenses. If I say "I go", "I will go", or "I went", I'm going to the same place as you, but perhaps at a different time. I'd like to know what type of criteria you apply when you hire people.

Do you use a pool of passably bilingual people? Maybe you know that you can find bilingual francophones in a lot of areas. Can you tell me what you did and what you were doing before your evaluation? It seems a bit shady to me.

[Don Head]

I'll try to answer. You had several questions in your comment.

In terms of the plan question.... Yes, we had a plan that was covering the period 2008-2011. It very clearly outlined some steps that the organization was to take and it identified some specific roles and responsibilities for various managers within the organization. But it's very clear that the plan was not aggressive enough and was not necessarily being owned by managers right down to the local level within the organization.

The results of the official languages commissioner's report has pointed to those gaps. That's what has caused us to step back and put in place a much more stringent action plan with specific targets, as well as putting in place an official languages accountability framework, for which we are in the final stages of publishing. It's one of the things I'll be talking to the official languages commissioner about.

It terms of your question regarding the level of bilingualism of staff, we defer to the normal public service testing processes to determine whether people are meeting the BC levels, the exemption levels. We do not make any arbitrary decisions. Those are based on the standard testing tools and testers for all of the federal public service.

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

So it's quite recent. If I understood correctly, your first action plan is from 2008; that's three years. Before that, you had no plan. Is that right?

[Don Head]

I would say that the plan was not robust. There was a plan. It was very loose.

[An hon. member]

Busted.

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

I will share the rest of my time with Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

May I have the full 30 seconds?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Your estimation of time is right on, Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thanks for coming.

I'll be very brief. There are a couple of things. Obviously this report was a wake-up call. I think we can sense from your answers and your comments that the commissioner got your attention. I don't think there's any question about that. I think there is some hope here because I understand that you're starting to correct some things.

I'd be interested to know.... On page 5 you say that you do a daily verification through the staff in your office to test your ability to actively offer service to the public in both official languages, which is very unique and very innovative. Can you just explain how you do that?