Official Languages Committee on March 8th, 2011

[Liseanne Forand]

The Service Canada centre in Port Hawkesbury is designated bilingual.

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

What about the one in Inverness?

[Liseanne Forand]

It is designated unilingual English. We will check though.

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

The member of Parliament representing Chéticamp told me that Service Canada used to have a front-line employee there who was bilingual, permanent and well known in the community. That has changed. Now, the people of Chéticamp must travel to Inverness to a unilingual Service Canada site or they have to call or wait for the mobile service. Is that correct?

[Liseanne Forand]

I would simply like to clarify that the Inverness Service Canada centre is also bilingual. Both are bilingual, the centre in Inverness and the one in Port Hawkesbury.

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

Both are bilingual. People have to drive over 50 kilometres...

[Liseanne Forand]

As regards...

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

In the past, the people of Chéticamp had access to a person who was designated bilingual, always there, on a permanent basis, who was well known and who provided excellent service. Now, they have to drive to Inverness to see a bilingual employee, of course, or wait for the mobile site or place a call. Is that true?

[Liseanne Forand]

Yes, a regular mobile site goes to Chéticamp as required. It may be once a week or once every two weeks.

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

Apparently, 400 people from Chéticamp have signed a petition expressing their dissatisfaction with your solution to this problem. They signed a petition to express their concern over the reduction in services in Chéticamp.

Chéticamp is not in my riding, but I am a member of the House of Commons and I work for all bilingual minority communities in Canada. I think that Chéticamp is losing bilingual services, and the people of Chéticamp agree with me.

Lastly, you said that you consulted the community and you mentioned the economic development and employability network. I don't know the exact name, but is that a provincial group that looks after economic issues?

[Liseanne Forand]

Yes, that is correct. I was referring to the Nova Scotia Economic Development and Employability Network.

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

Why not consult the people?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you. We will come back to that.

The next person on the second round is Ms. Guay.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome everyone.

I understand my colleague's frustration when he talks about Chéticamp. Chéticamp is not alone; Petit-de-Grat is experiencing the same problem.

Last week, we learned that a francophone employee in Kemptville could not respond to a francophone because she was not allowed to speak her language. That is rather surprising. I don't know if it is a mistake, but I can tell you that for those of us who are fighting for official languages, it was rather surprising to see a situation like that. I hope that will not happen again.

I would like to know specifically what points of service are? Where exactly do you send employees? Are there offices as such?

[Liseanne Forand]

First I would like to speak once again about the employee who was instructed not to speak French. It was a total misunderstanding, and as soon as the management of the office realized it, an email was immediately sent to clarify the situation with employees. This happened last October. I entirely agree that telling employees that they cannot speak one of the official languages, no matter where, would be absolutely unacceptable.

As your colleague said, a service point is actually a Service Canada centre which means that there is a building, a counter and the rest. These places are generally organized in a similar way. The commissioner mentioned this in his audit. Most of the service outlets are service centres. As we have standards of service whereby we must be capable of serving 90% of the people within 50 kilometres of their residence, in this vast country of ours, we have established outreach sites staffed by one, two or three full-time employees of Service Canada. They are well trained. They go to communities, always setting up at the same location and at the same time, for example in the office of some organization or in a city hall on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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

Are the people advised of their coming?

[Liseanne Forand]

They certainly are. We communicate through weeklies, radio, etc. These employees bring with them a wireless computer and they can handle transactions, they can attend to business and they can serve the Canadian public.

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

You mentioned community services. What does this mean exactly?

[Liseanne Forand]

Community offices were created mainly between 2001 and 2005. This was before Service Canada was established. Third parties were involved, for example, an NGO in a village or in a rural environment. This organization provided people with information on the programs and services offered by the Canadian government. The government contracted with these organizations to provide services. For example, if someone wanted to obtain a Social Insurance Number, they would provide them with all the information needed such as where to call, where to go, and so forth.

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

Therefore it is possible to offer the same services there as the services that are offered in a regular outlet.

[Liseanne Forand]

Not at all. If you come to a regular office or even to a regular outreach site to get a social insurance card, they will give it to you right away. They will process your data in the computer and give you a number. In a community office, they could only give you general instructions and tell you what information had to be provided. You had to go somewhere to apply. In order to obtain a social insurance card, you have to go in person to the office to get the service. However, people who receive employment insurance and who want to change their address or change their application for direct deposit can do this at a regular outreach site. This cannot be done through a community office.

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

Is it working well?

[Liseanne Forand]

Our surveys show that the outreach sites are working very well. The same people are present there every week or every two weeks. People are getting to know each other and they are getting organized. As far as we are concerned, we are well organized and we offer a good service.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you.

Your time is up, Ms. Guay.

We will now go to Mrs. Boucher.

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

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our committee.

As a Quebec francophone, I was startled to hear that Service Canada is still providing unilingual services although we have two official languages in Canada. This is a fact, and it matters little if there are 10, 20, 1,000 or 60,000 francophones in a province that is supposed to be unilingual.

On what basis do you provide unilingual service in Nova Scotia, for example? Right next to Nova Scotia, in New Brunswick, an officially bilingual province, there are plenty of francophones.

Explain to me how you determined that such and such an office would be unilingual when, close by, there are plenty of francophones whose first official language is French. Help me to understand that.

We always hear that both official languages are very important, but this situation might lead us to think otherwise. I am a francophone from the Quebec City region, where there are very few anglophones. However, when they want to be served in their language, I dare to hope that they can be. If I go to Nova Scotia and I need directions, I hope that I will never get “I don't speak French” for an answer.