Official Languages Committee on March 1st, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the 28^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages on this Thursday, March 1, 2012.

Before beginning today, I just want to draw to the attention of members of the committee that we have received the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. Our estimates are not particularly large, but they are for an amount of $22 million. They're going to be deemed automatically reported to the House by May 31. So if members of the committee wish to review these estimates—they pertain to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Chief Electoral Officer, the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board, and the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, as well as the Privy Council—I'd be more than happy to organize a meeting, to call witnesses so they can explain these estimates, and we can vote on them.

We are here today pursuant to Standing Order 108 to pursue our study on the evaluation of the Roadmap: improving programs and service delivery. Three groups of witnesses will be appearing before us today.

First we have Mr. Johnson and Mr. McGovern from the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development. Welcome.

Then we have Ms. Cantin, from the Canada School of Public Service.

Welcome.

Also here are Mr. MacLeod and Mr. Tremblay of the Treasury Board Secretariat.

We'll begin with the representative of the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.

[David McGovern, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Research Branch, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Chairman, membres du comité, thank you for the opportunity to share Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's contribution to the road map for Canada's linguistic duality. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's mission is to build a stronger and more competitive Canada, to support Canadians in making choices that help them live productive and rewarding lives, and to improve Canadians' quality of life.

Within its mandate, HRSDC is committed to supporting initiatives that foster the development of official language minority communities and that promote the use of English and French in Canadian society.

Under the Roadmap, the department allocated $94 million over a five-year period to implement four initiatives in the areas of social, human resource and economic development of official language minority communities in Canada.

Let me begin with the enabling fund for official language minority communities. The enabling fund is HRSDC's main contribution under the road map and is a cornerstone initiative in community, economic, and human resource development for official language minority communities. The Commissioner of Official Languages has recognized the enabling fund as an example of a positive measure.

The initiative represents an investment of $69 million over five years, which has funded the operations and activities of 14 national, provincial, and territorial not-for-profit organizations, including

the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, the RDÉE,

the national coordinating body for francophone communities; 12 provincial-territorial networks representing francophone and Acadian minority communities; and CEDEC, the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation, representing Quebec's anglophone communities.

The success of these organizations has been based on their ability to forge partnerships and to build on the strengths and expertise of others. For example, in 2010-11, enabling fund recipient organizations leveraged over $40 million from the public, private, and non-profit sectors, representing three times the value of the original investments made through the enabling fund.

The RDÉE and CEDEC networks create hubs for community-based partnerships. They support an integrated approach to local economic and human resources development, and they have undertaken innovative projects that respond to local needs. For example, RDÉE Ontario developed La bonne affaire, an innovative model that supports the economic integration of francophone immigrants into small and medium-sized businesses. CEDEC has worked with the remote anglophone community on Quebec's north shore to develop the tourism sector to support economic diversification in the region. CEDEC helped members of the community acquire the skills they needed to be successful and facilitated the development of strategic partnerships with tourism associations.

A second Human Resources and Skills Development Canada initiative under the Roadmap is strengthening the capacity of non-governmental organizations for early childhood development. Four million dollars has been allocated to this initiative over five years.

The funding is used to promote the linguistic and cultural aspects of early childhood development while strengthening and improving access to programs and services in official language minority communities. It recognizes the important role that the not-for-profit sector plays in building relationships, networks and partnerships with parent and learning organizations for an environment that supports early childhood development at the community level.

The funding is used to support the Commission nationale des parents francophones, which includes obtaining a consensus on a vision for early childhood development in official language minority communities and preparing a harmonized national action plan, including the development and transfer of educational tools and products for children and families such as video clips, a guidebook and resources for professionals.

The work of the Commission nationale des parents francophones and its partners has helped to strengthen and improve access to programs and services in official language minority communities. It has worked to create a strong network where partners can work shoulder to shoulder to sustain and evolve the vision for early childhood development among communities and their stakeholders.

The third Human Resources and Skills Development Canada component under the road map is the child care pilot project. Funding for this initiative is $13.5 million over the life of the road map. The initiative is a research project studying the impacts of a French language preschool program on linguistic and cultural development and on the readiness to learn of young children living in francophone minority communities.

The project is being conducted in six communities: Saint John and Edmundston in New Brunswick; Cornwall, Durham, and Orléans in Ontario; and Edmonton, Alberta. Approximately 400 children and their families are participating in this project.

The pilot project is a unique initiative that provides research evidence on what works for children growing up in minority francophone communities. The results are particularly informative for parents, service providers, and communities with respect to the design and delivery of early childhood development and the identification of ways to preserve francophone culture and language. So far, the results of the study indicate a positive impact of the preschool program on the school readiness of children growing up in minority francophone communities.

The fourth and last Human Resources and Skills Development Canada initiative under the Roadmap is the family literacy initiative. The purpose of the family literacy initiative is to improve access to francophone family literacy services by supporting networks and partnerships with various community stakeholders with a view to reaching families and adults that play an important role in the lives of children. Family literacy services are being integrated into existing community programs and services, and tailored to the specific literacy needs of minority communities. Total funding for this initiative is $7.5 million for 2008-2013.

This initiative is managed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's Office of Literacy and Essential Skills which in turn is working closely with the Réseau pour Ie développement de I'alphabétisme et des compétences and its partners to implement the initiative. The initiative objectives are to strengthen networks and create new partnerships; to adapt literacy services and programs to meet the particular needs of certain groups within a minority community setting; and to increase access to family literacy training and to have qualified trainers. The Family Literacy Initiative has supported eight new research reports identifying needs and tools for targeted groups, developed nine family literacy models, implemented two awareness strategies and published various promotional tools.

This completes the overview of the four initiatives supported by Human Resources and Skills Development under the road map. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada remains committed, through its policies, programs, and services, to listening to communities and responding to their needs. The department has developed an integrated official language minority community consultation framework to facilitate meaningful consultations at both the national and regional levels. The department has established and continues to maintain ongoing dialogue with communities to gain a better understanding of their views, needs, and priorities. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is contributing to the horizontal evaluation of the road map that has been conducted by Canadian Heritage. Two initiatives are being formally evaluated at this time: the enabling fund and the family literacy initiative. These evaluations are well under way and are expected to be completed by the summer of 2012.

The department also reports on its initiatives under the road map through the departmental performance report of Canadian Heritage that's tabled in Parliament annually.

I want to reassure the members of the committee that our department is committed to fostering the development of official languages minority communities and linguistic duality, and will continue to support and explore avenues to pursue this engagement.

I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present the departmental accomplishments with regards to the Roadmap. My colleague and I will be pleased to respond to your questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Now we will go to Ms. Cantin.

[Nancie Cantin, Director, Research and Development, Canada School of Public Services]

Mr. Chairman, committee members, thank you for this opportunity to come and talk to you about our initiative and about our contribution to the Roadmap.

My name is Nancie Cantin, and I am the director of Research and Development, Language Training in the Learning Programs Branch of the Canada School of Public Service. On behalf of the school, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to talk about the school's contribution to the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013: Acting for the Future.

The Canada School of Public Service is the common learning services provider for the public service of Canada. Throughout the country, the school offers a range of training and development activities aimed at strengthening both individual and organizational capacities and fostering management excellence in the federal public service.

In the context of the Roadmap, the school proposed an initiative to enhance access to its on-line second-language training and retention products, with the support of Canadian universities. This initiative, which is being conducted in the form of a pilot project, began in 2009 and will draw to a close on March 31. The school received funding of $2.5 million over three years to implement this initiative. One of the objectives was to help expand the pool of recent university graduates who consider the federal public service as an employer of choice and who meet the Government of Canada's bilingualism requirements.

The school's main activities in the context of this initiative involved negotiating agreements with partner universities, adapting language training products, facilitating access to its products, and finally, evaluating the initiative. This evaluation is currently underway. The partner universities, meanwhile, were asked to provide an environment conducive to learning, to contribute to the advancement of official languages, and to participate in a cohort study.

Concretely, 10 universities participated in this pilot project: Carleton University; L'École nationale d'administration publique; York University, Glendon Campus; Université Ste-Anne; Simon Fraser University; the University of Alberta; the University of Ottawa; the University of Regina; the University of Waterloo; and the University of Victoria.

The school developed two course curricula, one in French and one in English, and organized sessions with the Public Service Commission to assess the participants' second-language competencies, both at the beginning and at the end of the initiative.

The school then provided access to 16 of its on-line learning products to students at these 10 universities. The curricula we developed consist of a progression of educational activities in nine phases. These learning activities are aimed in particular at improving comprehension, pronunciation, grammar and writing skills in the second language. The products are interactive; they include simulation components and language skills self-assessment tools.

In addition, the school created short video sequences with the Commissioner of Official Languages in which the commissioner talks about the importance of Canada's linguistic duality. These video sequences were inserted into the curricula as educational material to create awareness of the importance of Canadian linguistic duality. Preliminary findings indicate that participants were pleased with the quality of the learning tools and with the services provided by the school in the context of the initiative.

Together with Canadian Heritage, the Canada School of Public Service is participating in the horizontal summative evaluation of the Roadmap in order to assess its relevance and the effectiveness of the pilot project.

Thank you for your attention, and I'll be happy to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Madame Cantin.

Now we'll have the Treasury Board Secretariat.

[Ross MacLeod, Assistant Deputy Minister, Governance Planning and Policy Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat]

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. Above all, I would like to say thanks for the opportunity you've given us to contribute to your study on the evaluation of the road map. We have been following the progress of your work with great interest and are pleased to be able to play a part in it.

I am joined today by Marc Tremblay, executive director of Official Languages in the Governance, Planning and Policy Sector at the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Under the Roadmap, the office has had gross annual funding of $3.4 million renewed for five years, which it had been granted on a recurring and permanent basis in the 2003-2008 Action Plan for Official Languages.

This funding was included in the road map because it's part of the money granted by the Government of Canada to further strengthen the foundation of Canada's linguistic duality and therefore to allow Canadians to benefit from linguistic duality in their daily lives.

The purpose of including this recurring funding in the road map was to promote efforts to strengthen the accountability with regard to official languages.

It is against this backdrop that the office was tasked with continuing to serve as a centre of excellence in the area of official languages. The main focus of this work was to closely monitor issues related to service to the public, language of work, and the representation of both language groups within the federal administration and to continue to promote the creation of work environments that encourage federal public servants to exercise their right to work in the language of their choice in the National Capital Region and other regions designated as bilingual in terms of language of work.

The office's official languages centre of excellence initiative is part of the road map component, “Ensuring efficient governance to better serve Canadians”.

According to the horizontal results-based management and accountability framework and the performance measurement strategy for the road map, the centre of excellence initiative should help to strengthen the linguistic duality in the public service and the capacity of the government in terms of official languages.

Since we are talking about the performance measurement strategy, I would like to mention that as a road map partner organization, the office regularly reports to Canadian Heritage on the progress made in implementing its initiative within the scope of the work of the various committees established by the Official Languages Secretariat to help it fully assume its coordination role in implementing the road map.

As you know, human resources management has been undergoing a major overhaul in recent years. First of all, deputy heads are now fully responsible for managing human resources—including implementation of the Official Languages Program—in their respective organizations, under the new human resources management system established after Parliament passed the Public Service Modernization Act.

Next, the office was reorganized in June 2009 to address the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on the Public Service of Canada, co-chaired by the Right Honourable Don Mazankowski and the Honourable Paul M. Tellier.

In this context, the Official Languages Centre of Excellence initiative needed to be rethought in order to harmonize it with the procedures for implementing the new human resources system that is now in place.

The activities of the centre of excellence initiative are now conducted in line with the vision that deputy heads are fully accountable and responsible for managing their human resources, including issues related to official languages.

I would like to take this opportunity to assure you that the office's restructuring has not changed any of the responsibilities of this team in charge of supporting the Treasury Board in carrying out its mission under part VIII of the Official Languages Act. This team's duties are the same as before, but they must be accomplished in accordance with the new human resources management system that the government has put in place.

As part of the official languages centre of excellence initiative, the office provides horizontal support to federal institutions to assist them in implementing parts IV, V, and VI of the Official Languages Act, and, more effectively, in order to strengthen linguistic duality in the public service. More specifically, the office develops and updates, at the request of the minister, the official languages regulatory instruments as well as the Treasury Board's applicable policy instruments. It gives advice on the language obligations to be included in the instruments of other policy centres of the Treasury Board Secretariat.

The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer provides horizontal support and advice to federal institutions on applying the act and the Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations, which we call "the Regulations". In order to accomplish this, it oversees the regulations and coordinates a review of their application based on data from the most recent decennial census.

The office develops and issues policy interpretations, for CALDECH, for example. It manages various committees and networks, such as the Departmental Advisory Committee on Official Languages, the Crown Corporations Advisory Committee on Official Languages and the Council of the Network of Departmental Official Languages Champions.

It undertakes information and awareness activities, such as the annual conference of official languages champions and the Best Practices Forum for all federal organizations. It makes available to federal institutions tools to help manage official languages, such as the Official Languages Management Dashboard, the Linguistic Needs Designator and The ABCs of linguistic profiles at your fingertips.

The office also assesses the performance of federal institutions with regard to official languages, through official languages reviews and the management accountability framework, and has prepared the annual report on official languages, which was tabled by the President of the Treasury Board in November.

In the short term, the Official Languages Centre of Excellence initiative should help to enhance understanding, knowledge, information sharing and dialogue in federal institutions.

In the medium term, it should increase the ability and commitment of federal institutions in terms of official languages.

In the long term, the initiative should result in better enforcement of Parts IV, V and VI of the act and the regulations within federal institutions, in improved official languages leadership and in stronger linguistic duality in the federal public service.

A summary evaluation of the official languages centre of excellence initiative is currently under way. The Internal Audit and Evaluation Bureau of the Treasury Board Secretariat has set up a governance committee and has prepared the evaluation framework for this evaluation. It has nearly completed the document review and is preparing to survey some 200 federal institutions as input into the evaluation.

Without prejudging the results of this evaluation, we can say that since 2008 we have witnessed constant changes in the overall implementation of the official languages program in federal institutions. Here are a few examples of the results obtained under the official languages centre of excellence initiative.

On March 31, 2011, 94.4% of incumbents in bilingual positions met the linguistic requirements of their positions. This is up from 91.7% in 2007-08.

The percentage of incumbents of bilingual positions serving the public who met the language requirements of their position continued to grow and reached 93.3% in 2011, compared with 93.0% in 2010, 92.4% in 2009, and 91.5% in 2008.

The percentage of bilingual positions requiring superior proficiency, that is, level C in oral interaction, to serve the public has gradually increased since 2008, from 34.8% to 36.1%.

The number of employees in the core public administration providing personal and central services and who meet the language requirements of their positions is continually on the rise. On March 31, 2011, 94.4% of incumbents occupying bilingual positions and providing personal and central services met the language requirements of their positions, compared with 93.2% in 2010, 92.6% in 2009 and 91.8% in 2008.

As for supervisors across Canada (including managers), 94.0% met the requirements of their positions in 2010-2011, in comparison with 92.7% in 2010, 91.9% in 2009 and 91.8% in 2008. So this rate has gradually increased over the past 10 years.

The process for preparing annual reviews and writing the Annual Report on Official Languages has been simplified. The office has developed in collaboration with Canadian Heritage a new common approach to collecting data on Parts IV, V, VI and VII of the act from federal institutions for the preparation of their respective annual reports.

A new collaborative approach with the advisory committees and the network of champions has been gradually implemented to help the members become more self-reliant and strategic and to exercise stronger leadership in their institutions.

In April 2009, the office launched the regulations management system. The purpose of this new web application is to help institutions determine whether their offices serving the public should provide communications and services in both official languages.

A working group reporting to the two advisory committees was established to support institutions that had to work closely with the public during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver, and to ensure that services were available in both official languages at the games.

The office also developed an analytical grid and accompanying material to assist institutions in analyzing the impact of the Supreme Court ruling in the CALDECH case and in adhering to the principle of substantive linguistic equality in the provision of services.

The office monitored the application of the analytical grid to ensure that institutions were respecting the principle of substantive linguistic equality.

We have almost completed our review of official languages policy instruments, and the new instruments should come into effect in summer 2012.

Official languages form an integral part of the human resources management expectations, which are included in the annual performance agreements between the Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy ministers. In many institutions, they can also be found in agreements between managers and their respective supervisors.

To conclude, I would like to point out that the paradigm shift that occurred in 2009 has made it possible for institutions to take more charge of their affairs and to assume their official languages responsibilities in a more effective manner. The office continues to fully assume its official languages role, while complying with the new human resources system now in place.

After some fine-tuning, the current model is almost at the desired stage of maturity, which involves a fair balance between the accountability of deputy heads and the involvement of central agencies.

As for the official languages centre of excellence initiative, the results obtained so far are very encouraging and show that implementation of the official languages program is continuing to improve.

We are now available to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thanks to everyone. A period of an hour and a half will be devoted to questions and comments. There will be a brief five-minute health break at 9:45. We will begin with Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to welcome our guests.

Mr. Chairman, when we began our proceedings this year, you talked about studying the annual report of the Treasury Board Secretariat. We could put that on the agenda. I am not introducing a motion to that effect; I am simply saying that you said you were prepared to conduct that study, and we would like to do it as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All right. If you have a motion on the matter, submit it to the clerk.

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

That's perfect.

My questions will be put directly to the Treasury Board people. My colleagues will put theirs to the representatives of the other departments.

Does the $17 million funding received under the Roadmap represent 100% of funding for the Centre of Excellence?

[Ross MacLeod]

To date, yes. However, that funding may be increased if necessary, for example if we want to add specific projects to the work of the Centre for Excellence during the year.

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

The purpose of the reports on plans and priorities is to describe the mandate, mission and strategic objectives of each department and to provide information the structure of their areas of activity, their expected results and their strategy regarding performance measurement. These reports include the coming fiscal year and two subsequent years. They are tabled in the House of Commons by the Treasury Board president after the main estimates.

How is it that the Treasury Board Secretariat, which has major official languages responsibilities, has no official language plans or priorities?

[Ross MacLeod]

The official languages plans and priorities are among the responsibilities of the Official Languages Centre of Excellence. There is a work plan for each year. We are now working in collaboration with all the other stakeholders in government.

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

And yet that's what is stated in your Report on Plan and Priorities tabled in Parliament. This is unacceptable, and it has been going on for years.

How can you say that the institutions have to be more rigorous about official languages performance, oversight and governance plans when you yourselves are not? One would think that the approach you prefer, which is to draw on best practices, doesn't work.

[Ross MacLeod]

We are pursuing a lot of activities in collaboration with other federal departments and agencies. This is a work plan that we pursue every year. We have a series of meetings with them and have made commitments with the deputy ministers to assist them in understanding and stimulating their capacity to discharge their official languages responsibilities within their institutions.

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

You are responsible for the reports on plans and priorities. It is mandatory for official languages to be part of the plans and priorities of all the institutions. Why have you not yet issued a directive requiring official languages to be included in those reports? Can you promise us that you will do so as soon as possible?

[Marc Tremblay, Executive Director, Official Languages, Treasury Board Secretariat]

According to the philosophy of the Official Languages Act and its implementation, all government activities are affected when it comes to our services to the public and the language of work. Language requirements are therefore integrated into all government processes. That is why the official languages are a foundation piece of every program, activity and service offered. They are part of that. The deputy heads are responsible for compliance with language requirements. Requesting that that appear in the reports on plan and priorities would mean reviewing all government activities. In a way, the official languages are a part of all government plans and priorities.

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

No, the Treasury Board is the watchdog. This may be everyone's responsibility, but someone has to oversee it all. Don't you have any responsibilities in that regard?

[Marc Tremblay]

Yes, the Treasury Board has responsibilities under Part VIII and genuinely exercises them.

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

I am going to cite a passage from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's Annual Report on Official Languages for 2008-2009: "...the Official Languages Centre of Excellence modified its usual practice in 2008-2009. Rather than requesting all federal institutions to submit a review of their official languages activities, only some were asked to submit a report."

In your view, does that run counter to section 48 of the Official Languages Act, which reads as follows:

48. The President of the Treasury Board shall, within such time as is reasonably practicable after the termination of each financial year, submit an annual report to Parliament on the status of programs relating to the official languages of Canada in the various federal institutions in respect of which it has responsibility under section 46.

That is set out in the act. In 2010, the NDP filed a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages because you asked only certain institutions to submit a report on official languages to you, which is contrary to the Official Languages Act. Has the situation been corrected? Can you confirm for us that you now require a report from all institutions every year?

[Marc Tremblay]

I won't state an opinion on the premise of your question because it arises from an interpretation of the act. Furthermore, a complaint was filed with the Commissioner of Official Languages. That means that the process must be complied with and be allowed to follow its course.

I add that it is correct to say that the cycle of annual reports, of requests to the federal institutions for reports, has been changed in the past three years essentially to aim—

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

You're violating the act.

[Marc Tremblay]

In my opinion, we are complying with the act.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.

Mr. Gourde, go ahead, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here with us this morning. My question is for Ms. Cantin.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that your school was taking initiatives to support students and that $2.5 million had been allocated for that purpose. Can you tell me how many persons that has been able to serve? Can you give us more details? Have more people been able to take part in these initiatives in certain provinces, or are initiatives being implemented across Canada? Could you tell us more about the initiatives implemented?