Official Languages Committee on March 24th, 2011

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

I am asking whether those services are currently bilingual. In all of the offices that I called, the services were only in English. You confirmed that the administrative structure in the Atlantic region was unilingual.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Mr. Godin, the response will have to be very brief, because your time has run out.

[Liseanne Forand]

Mr. Chair, as I said at the outset of my remarks today, I was not being accurate when I said that the Atlantic region was an unilingual one, because such a designation is established by the Official Languages Act. Therefore, no changes have been brought to the designation of the Atlantic region.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you, Ms. Forand.

[Liseanne Forand]

No change was made, whether regarding the language of work, part V...

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

You did not change anything, except for the fact that you hired an anglophone to serve francophones.

[Liseanne Forand]

... or the services to the public provided for in part IV.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

I am sure we will come back to that, Ms. Forand.

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Forand, thank you for meeting with us again. We will give you the opportunity to clarify everything. Which provinces are included in the Atlantic designated region?

[Liseanne Forand]

The Atlantic region includes Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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

What is its designation? Is it unilingual or bilingual?

[Liseanne Forand]

It does not have a linguistic designation. The designation with regard to the language of work is defined in the Official Languages Act.

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

Is the region bilingual or unilingual?

[Liseanne Forand]

New Brunswick is a bilingual province. All the rights and responsibilities related to that designation are available in New Brunswick.

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

What about in the other provinces?

[Liseanne Forand]

With regard to the other provinces, as you know, that is an issue of service to the public. We comply with the official language regulations in designating bilingual offices, locations and points of service, as is the case for example in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, or in all provincial capitals.

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

So there are three possibilities: a region can be designated bilingual, unilingual or neither of the above. That is my understanding.

[Liseanne Forand]

Allow me to repeat myself, sir: there is no designation per se for the region as a whole. Some areas, like New Brunswick, are designated bilingual. They were and remain so. Nothing has changed in that regard.

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

Could the region receive a designation?

[Liseanne Forand]

The Official Languages Act provides for the designation of locations, and we comply with the act throughout our region.

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

I will give the floor to Royal Galipeau, who will ask the next question.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Good morning, Ms. Forand. The last time you appeared before us, I like other committee members had the impression that you got tripped up in the details. Your prepared remarks today reassured me somewhat. However, in listening to you answer questions from members, I am even less reassured than the last time. Today you not only got tripped up in the details, you got tripped up in your own language.

You are no clearer in answering the questions by members of the government side than you were in answering those by members of the opposition. Regretfully, I have come to share the concerns expressed by the members of the opposition. I believe that this should be an opportunity for you to do some more in-depth soul-searching.

I have no other questions because I am not satisfied with the answers you have given in response to the previous questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Ms. Forand, do you wish to respond or react?

[Liseanne Forand]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I would like to respond. I am trying to describe the situation as clearly as possible. I would like to thank the member for having stated that he is reassured by my statements, that you have a copy of, because that was truly the intent of the message I wanted to give you today. I apologize if I did not do that clearly.

The message that I wanted to give you was that we fully respect the Official Languages Act and we do that out of a desire to provide our staff with the work environment that they have a right to and out of a desire to provide Canadian men and women with the services they also have a right to by law.

I wanted to send the message that we have not reduced those rights in any way, neither in terms of the language of work, nor in terms of services provided to the public in the Atlantic region.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you, Ms. Forand. The time that is left for this round of questions will be used by Ms. Boucher.

Ms. Boucher, you have the floor.