Official Languages Committee on March 24th, 2011

[Richard Dicerni]

My answer is yes, but I would make two other small comments. I follow up on the complaints fairly religiously. Either last year or this year, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages received only one complaint, testifying to the fact that not everyone who contacts the department is served inadequately.

Secondly, I told my counterparts that I would be sending a copy of today's testimony to our managers, once the minutes are available, so that they would be made more aware of the questions raised by the members and the concerns of the people. This is a good way to...

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Good for you if you received only one complaint, Mr. Dicerni, but you know as I do that people simply switch to using English, knowing that they are immediately confronted with a lack of services.

[Richard Dicerni]

That is a...

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

We know what happens.

[Richard Dicerni]

Nevertheless, I know that the opposite is also true. If we had received 50 complaints, things would not be very pleasant today. As I told you, by sharing the transcript of my appearance today with the people who provide service to the public, this will make managers, assistant deputy managers and all of the employees aware of how important it is to comply with the legislation.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you. That is a good initiative.

Mr. Gourde, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for coming here today.

I will continue on the same topic pertaining to services to the public. When Canadian citizens want to receive services from the department, they often dial 1 800 O-Canada. They connect to Service Canada, which can direct them to the appropriate department. Do the Canadians who call you often use this route? Furthermore, it is more likely that business people would be dealing with Industry Canada and not necessarily the citizen who works at Tim Hortons.

[Richard Dicerni]

In relative terms, few of our clients are part of the general public. My mother would not call the Department of Industry.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Unless she wanted to talk to you.

[Richard Dicerni]

She may do so if she wants to speak to me, but she is not part of the clientele served by the department. She would call Passport Canada.

Of the 6,000 employees in the department, between 1,000 to 1,200 work on patents. So we communicate with a very specialized clientele.

The same thing applies to people who inspect antennas, to determine whether or not there has been a violation because someone has installed an illegal antenna. So we intervene in a very specific, precise manner.

We have 1,800 lines for various services, such as bankruptcy trustees, and as a result of recent verifications, we are able to confirm that the services provided are bilingual.

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

You said earlier that Industry Canada verified the weight of commercial weigh scales. How do you make sure that violation reports are submitted in the proper language when the owner of the weigh scale lives in an anglophone zone but has a francophone name more or less?

[Richard Dicerni]

We have not had any problems. Indeed, a bill aimed at improving this act has just been approved by the Governor General. The matter has been studied by numerous parliamentary committees, including a Senate committee, and this type of problem has never been raised.

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

Is the inspection report written in both languages?

[Richard Dicerni]

It is written in the client's language. We have forms enabling us to verify that the gas pump indicates the quantity of litres that has really been pumped.

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

That is easy, but if you are in Westmount, is the clientele francophone or anglophone?

[Richard Dicerni]

I have noted your question about the way that we conduct our inspections and I will report on the matter to the clerk. In all honesty, I do not know how the work is done.

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

Fine, thank you.

I have finished, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you, Mr. Gourde.

We will now turn to Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair...

[Richard Dicerni]

My colleague would like to respond with respect to FedNor.

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

You have a good memory.

[Mitch Davies]

FedNor is responsible for delivering the economic development initiative, which is under the road map for linguistic duality, $4.45 million over the life of that program. In the last full fiscal year they delivered $1.9 million of projects 100% in francophone and minority communities for community and economic development. For example, in Thunder Bay through the FedNor program we provided business development support for francophone women.

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

My question is on the administration of that program. Do they have francophones to administer it? Are they bilingual?

[Mitch Davies]

Absolutely, yes.

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

I am referring to the administration, clients.

I went to Edmonton, Alberta, where I met with a group of francophone entrepreneurs. They said that they were able to deal with one organization in order to obtain funding, whereas the anglophones had to deal with about four organizations, for example community organizations financed by Industry Canada or by programs such as FedNor or ACOA. It would therefore appear that francophones had to knock on only one door whereas the others had to knock on four.

Are you aware of this?