Official Languages Committee on March 24th, 2011

[Richard Dicerni]

That is a question of primary responsibility. Our department deals with linguistic duality and the program we share—

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

You are confusing things. I am talking about Industry Canada. Your department does not only have offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. It must also have an office in Newfoundland, is that not so?

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes, although our presence on the ground, in Newfoundland, is rather modest. Our work there is pretty much done by Measurement Canada, which is responsible for monitoring gas pumps. We also have an office dedicated to bankruptcy cases. Our presence focuses on specific programs and legislation.

With regard to cultural and economic development, the Government of Canada has mandated the economic development agencies to target specific regions of the country. We have FedNor, which targets northern Ontario.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

There are about 12 seconds remaining.

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

Now what is FedNor doing for francophones in Kapuskasing, Hearst, Timmins and Sudbury?

[Richard Dicerni]

My colleague Mr. Davies can give you an overview of that during the second round.

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

You are a fast learner.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

That is true.

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

That is why we get two rounds of questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Ms. Boucher, the floor is yours.

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

Good morning gentlemen and welcome to our committee.

From what I have read, you received a C overall, but as you said earlier, your results fell in a number of categories, in particular with regard to part IV of the Official Languages Act. With regard to the observations on active offer, the Commissioner of Official Languages noted that a visual active offer was available at your department in 87% of cases, between January and April 2010. That is pretty good. However, an active offer in person was only available in 40% of cases. I would like for you to explain that. In a country that is supposedly bilingual, where much is said about linguistic duality and the fact that French and English should be on an equal footing across the country—at least, that is what we francophones believe—how come an active offer is only available in 40% of cases?

[Richard Dicerni]

I have a few comments to make in that regard. Clearly, a number of adjustments need to be made. Since the report was published, our managers have made greater efforts to remind office employees of the duties under the act, for example, on how to answer phone calls. I conducted a survey over the past two weeks. The quality of service offered today is significantly higher than that noted in the report. As such, improvements have been made since the report was released.

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

Could we have a copy of your findings?

[Richard Dicerni]

Yes, I can submit that to the committee—

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

Yes, I think that would be important.

[Richard Dicerni]

There are some very independent organizations that work within Industry Canada. We are not an integrated department where everyone does the same thing, as is the case with the Correctional Service of Canada, which focuses exclusively on inmates. We have people that deal with bankruptcy, we have people working at Measurement Canada, and each of these organizations have offices and fairly specific activities.

Moreover, I asked my colleagues for some explanations when I verified the list that includes the 60 service points. We discovered that of these 60 service points, Measurement Canada had 20, where, in 10 cases, services were provided, but in the case of the 10 others, these were simply offices equipped with a computer where inspectors would keep their suitcases. In actual fact these service points should not have been included on the list because they are not there to provide client services. As I was telling you, the inspectors go there to work on the computer once they have completed their inspections. Given that we indicate that services are provided at these locations, and this list is in the public domain, we will have to clean it up somewhat.

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

Because if you do not provide service there—

[Richard Dicerni]

These locations should not be included on the list. We will have to clean it up. In some of these offices, the people are simply tenants. They are not providing any services.

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

Your department is not the first one where this has occurred, and this bothers me. We are talking about active offer by the clerks. In my mind, the clerks must be fully bilingual. We are talking about locations where there are only unilingual anglophones, but we realized that this was not accurate in many cases. French should be on an equal footing with English.

You then talked about Montreal, where the reverse problem occurs. Anglophones represent 13.4% of the population in Quebec. I have asked many people the following question: What criteria do you use to determine whether or not a person is bilingual? When I arrived in Ottawa, I knew how to say "yes", "no" and "toaster". Knowing how to say the word toaster did not make me bilingual. I now am able to express myself in English without being embarrassed

Do you feel that we still have people who are embarrassed to speak the other language? When we hire people, should we not be telling them that it is incumbent upon them to serve citizens in their language?

[Richard Dicerni]

As you know, the powers that be in the field of education established the standards such as BBB, BCB. These standards define the linguistic competency that employees must have. In our department, approximately 3,000 positions have been defined as being... Approximately 3,000, right?

[Bill James]

There are 3,400 positions that have been designated bilingual.

[Richard Dicerni]

They each have a bilingual designation, in accordance with the requirements of the position. As I said, this goes back to the early 1970s, when the Official Languages Act was passed.

As for encouraging people to feel comfortable, telling them to not hesitate to speak both in French and English, managers—and first and foremost myself—can play a significant role. This is why I mentioned going to Montreal to encourage people. Recruiting staff is a challenge for us, but given all of our relationships that we have with community colleges, CEGEPS and universities, we should be able to broaden our recruitment activities.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

Thank you very much.

We will now begin our second round, and everyone will have four minutes.

If I may, before we begin, I would like to ask Mr. Dicerni a brief procedural question.

In response to one of his questions, you invited Mr. Godin to call you if he had any examples of...

[Richard Dicerni]

No, this was an answer to Mr. Nadeau's question.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mauril Bélanger]

An answer to Mr. Nadeau. Does that mean that we can call you directly without having to go through the minister's office?