Evidence of meeting #47 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 languages.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I do not wish to obtain that information, Madam. I have gotten the answer I wanted. It is not my intent to get you into trouble, that's not the issue.
Moving on to another matter, I would like to know what Transport Canada's budget is to implement the Official Languages Act, and how many years does it cover? We do not have those amounts.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
We normally do not calculate those amounts. When talking about the way we work...
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
And yet, we have obtained those figures from other departments.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
We can provide you with figures on our expenditures for official language training, the courses provided within the department. However, as for the way that we work within the department, we do not keep—
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
That is not what I am talking about. The government provides you with a certain amount of money, or you submit a request to the government in order to obtain money for official language programs. We have seen this in all of the departments. We have obtained the figures, they provided them to us.
Would it be possible to find out how much money the Department of Transport received in order to administer the Official Languages Act, and for how many years? This is a very simple question. All of the departments have these figures.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
I can provide you with the departmental spending pertaining to your question. That is doable.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Would you be able to forward this information to the clerk, as soon as possible?
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
For what year would you like this?
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
That depends on you. Some departments have received $130 million for a certain number of years, others received $300 million for another number of years. I do not know what you received, but you do. So it depends on how you work with the government. Give us as much information as possible.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
We will provide you with the departmental expenditure amounts for the years that you wish.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
We would like to know the amounts transferred to you in order to be able to provide the official languages programs.
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
There are not specific amounts for that, but the departments do receive money to ensure that they can satisfy—
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
Yes, certainly.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
This information is important to us, we need to have it in order to be able to continue our study.
You did not obtain a horrendous score. We have seen departments where things were not going at all well. The big problem in Transport Canada is indeed Air Canada. This problem has been going on for years and years. Our committee would like to see this issue resolved some day. It is true that when you take a plane, even here in Ottawa, you cannot receive service in French. This is unacceptable, we are in a national capital. Things have to change. That is why this legislation is important and why my colleagues talk about it so much. Moreover, this is part of our responsibilities. We do realize that you do not make decisions alone, we are fully cognizant of that. We hope that this issue will be resolved quickly and that my colleague will be able to obtain orange juice in French. This has not just happened once; he has raised this issue several times. The number of complaints is growing. This is becoming quite controversial amongst consumers who fly. I would therefore like to know what these budgets are.
Moreover, you received an "A" for the promotion and support of official language committees and the management of official languages. I would like you to provide us with more details. What did you do in order to achieve this mark? This could be used as an example for others who have not even managed to score an "E" or a "D".
10:35 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
We could give you an overview of everything that the department has. The deputy minister already said that the department has an employee site. This site contains the tools explaining how to serve the public in both official languages, how to manage the—
10:35 a.m.
Bloc
10:35 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
Yes, I find that this has become quite an interesting site, because employees can go to it in order to get the tools.
10:35 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
They certainly do.
10:35 a.m.
Bloc
10:35 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
They are clearly using it. Indeed, we could continue having these discussions and they could talk to us about the tools that we provide to them.
10:35 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Crown Corporation Governance, Corporate Services, Department of Transport
I think that we can provide you with a number of hits on the site. That would probably be easy to do.
10:35 a.m.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Do you have a type of site that does automatic translation of words or sentences?