Official Languages Committee on March 1st, 2012

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm going to put the same question to everyone. If I ask you for documents and you are unable to provide them to me, or you are unable to answer the questions I ask you, I would like to know. You'll be able to provide the committee with the requested information once you have it.

May we know who in your organization is conducting this summative evaluation? May we know who you have consulted for this summative evaluation, when you did so, where you did it and how you did it—that is to say by telephone, email or in person? Can we know the questions that are asked and the answers you receive?

Is there any of that information that you are unable to give us?

[Stephen Johnson]

As regards us at the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, I can say that I can answer those questions right now, with the exception of the last one. We have framework regulations on privacy that prevent us from making a connection between specific answers and individuals.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

If they agree to share that information, you can share it, can't you?

[Stephen Johnson]

Pardon me?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

If the people who give you the answers agree to allow those answers to be shared, you can share them.

[Stephen Johnson]

Yes. However, our practice is normally to state at the outset that we don't do that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

However, I'm asking you to ask them, when you ask them your questions, if you can share their answers with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages. Can you do that?

[Stephen Johnson]

That's definitely inconsistent with the practices we have adopted, even though we occasionally use private businesses to gather the information, and we even state in the contracts that the link between specific answers and individuals will not be disclosed to the department in order to keep their opinions confidential.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Give me whatever you want, and we'll see.

By the way, thank you for the presentations you gave us. Did those presentations have to be approved by someone in your department or agency?

[David McGovern]

We shared all the content with the office of the deputy minister and the minister's office, but the speech was prepared by the people who work for me.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

All right.

Were any changes made by the office of the deputy minister or minister?

[David McGovern]

No, not at all in my case.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You shared—

[Ross MacLeod]

The answer is the same for us. The secretariat and our parliamentary relations group saw it.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

The thing is that the Department of Canadian Heritage has given us a new task. We were told, about eight months too late, that we had to their job. That's why I want to know the conditions in which we are called upon to do their work. That's why I ask these questions; I hope you'll understand.

How many day care spaces have been created in the official language minority communities under the Roadmap?

[David McGovern]

I have no idea. I don't have any information on that subject, but I can put the question to people who work with us.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. McGovern, you talked about one of your initiatives, the child care pilot project, in which six communities are taking part. Can you tell me how those communities were selected?

[Stephen Johnson]

An open process was posted for communities to put in submissions if they were interested. They had to have a certain number of francophones to a certain capacity, because this isn't adding a new service; this is just building on top of what exists. So there was an open process and the communities were selected through that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Was there an evaluation grid?

[Stephen Johnson]

I imagine there was, but I don't have—

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Could you share that with us too?

[Stephen Johnson]

Certainly.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

I'm still speaking to Mr. Johnson. You have four initiatives. Bravo! We have some figures that show roughly where you stand with regard to expenditures. We have figures that take us up to the end of the third year. Those figures were made public by the Treasury Board, I believe.

According to those figures, you should normally be at approximately 60% of the amount. That should be roughly 20% per year. In the case of human resources, you have two initiatives. Bravo! And in two other cases, the child care pilot projects and the family literacy initiative, you are at 40% after three years. Why is that the case?

[Stephen Johnson]

In the case of the research pilot projects, the expenditures are not the same every year; they are highly variable. There are higher costs in the years in which we gather information. The purpose of the project is to offer the service, and we wait a year or two before following up.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

The projects should have been operating in 2010 and 2011. Based on my information, you planned for expenditures in the order of $2.7 million, but actual spending was $1.1 million. So something is wrong somewhere.