Evidence of meeting #53 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 bilingual.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I know his wife well, and she would not be very happy. Forgive me. Back to the matter at hand.
You talked about your overall management of the official languages program. You received a D. You said something that really struck me, Mr. Rosenberg. It is on page 4 of your presentation, where you say:
[...] we lacked mechanisms to promote understanding of Part IV (Communications with and Services to the Public) and Part VII (Minority Language Communities) and our action plan was considered to have ill-defined objectives and an unclear monitoring mechanism.
I would like you to elaborate on that a bit more. Page 4 of your presentation, first paragraph.
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yes.
Bloc
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Actually, we did have tools, but they were flawed. The objectives were not laid out clearly enough. For instance, what we want now are new performance measures so we can improve our performance. We want to reduce the number of instances where people do not receive service in French. We want to improve our positive response rate so that more French-speaking employees feel free to use the language of their choice in the course of their daily work such as writing memos. One way to measure that may be through a survey. That is the kind of thing that our last plan was lacking and that we are trying to improve this time around.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
How much time are you giving yourselves to bring about a real improvement?
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
As I said in my presentation, the plan will be finalized in May. So it will be put—
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yes, we will provide you with a copy as soon as it is finalized and approved by the department's executive council.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Earlier, during his wonderful PowerPoint presentation, my colleague was explaining how to translate certain words in both official languages. Do you plan to do anything similar, or do you already have such a plan?
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
We do not have one right now. When we finalize our plan, we are going to try to make the objectives, as well as the performance measures for those objectives, as clear as possible. We will also make the connection with those aspects of the plan that respond to the comments of the official languages commissioner.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I have to say that it pains us to see that the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade scored Ds, Cs and even Es. I see other departments that are doing well and making an effort, but when it comes to DFAIT, that is something you absolutely must do.
I have been to a number of embassies around the world. When I get there, they know full well where I am from, who I am, that I am part of the Bloc Québécois, and that I am a francophone and a francophile. Oftentimes, they assign their only French speaker to me, and that person tends to me immediately, speaking to me in French. But just as often, the rest of the staff there are not necessarily bilingual. So no matter what country it is, it is paramount that the people who are representing us there be bilingual. You have a long road ahead of you.
Ms. Dubé, as someone who has been with the department for a while now, you know what I am talking about and you have seen it in other places.
Director General and Champion of Official Languages, Corporate Secretariat, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I have been posted abroad myself. I have been in the department for many years now. I have held good practices forums with the young and not-so-young employees of the department. In my opinion, our missions and our heads of mission are highly aware of their responsibility to offer services…
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
If that were the case, you wouldn't have the rating you received.
Conservative
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I would like to continue with that question and ask you how they can be aware of it when you got the ratings you did.
Director General and Champion of Official Languages, Corporate Secretariat, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
The people in our missions abroad are very much aware that they are responsible for promoting the interests and values of Canada as a whole and Canada's linguistic groups, particularly the official language groups. Every day, as they perform their duties, they are called upon to do all kinds of outreach activities for Canada, such as Canada Day celebrations or speaking in both official languages when they give a public speech. Also, the fact that they use both official languages when speaking with representatives of foreign governments increases Canada's outreach. Of course, in our missions abroad, we use both official languages as languages of work.
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yes.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
So, explain to me how Passport Canada can provide bilingual services across the country through Canada Post, whereas that agency is not bilingual in many regions. Perhaps I didn't put my question properly, but it's well acknowledged that, in a good many places, the agency works on the principle that the number must justify the service. What mechanisms have you put in place at Passport Canada to ensure that people can get information and talk to the persons responsible? Things have changed: in the past, Passport Canada did not use Canada Post as an office to provide information, but now they do.
Do you have any data on that?
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I don't have it with me, but we can try to find it and get it to you later.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Okay.
I would like to go back to the 36% and 24%. The remaining 52% is missing, and I want to know where it is. You said that 88%…
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Yes, the 36% includes everyone in the department. I think that 36% of employees in the department are francophone or have French as their first official language. Now, that doesn't mean that all those people are in rotational positions or are in our missions abroad. The figures are not measuring the same things. But, as we have already said, we are trying to do our utmost to ensure that our heads of mission are bilingual—and in this case, it's clear—and that most of our staff abroad are Canadians in bilingual positions.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
You said that, in some areas, it's a matter of mentality or culture. What type of measures are you applying in the case of offices where you detect a problem or receive complaints? What do you do?
Deputy Minister, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
As we said, the head of the mission is primarily responsible for overseeing the entire mission. We work hard to raise awareness among the heads of mission of their responsibilities. For the most part, I think that they are well aware of those responsibilities. I am going to insist on this aspect when I meet with the heads of mission next year. They will be given a two-week course in May or June. I am going to be speaking to them, and I will emphasize the importance of providing this level of service so that Canadians can be served in the language of their choice.
