Official Languages Committee on March 1st, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. MacLeod, you have the floor.

[Ross MacLeod]

The committee report will be an important input into our work, but we will be consulting with 200 federal institutions, as well as the minority linguistic communities.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thanks.

Ms. Cantin, I would like to ask you two questions.

In the pilot project, is there a plan to monitor participants once they have completed their studies and are in the labour market in order to determine whether that influences their success rate?

[Nancie Cantin]

At the end of the pilot project, based on the results of the evaluation, the Canada School of Public Service will not have the funding to take further action on this initiative. Obviously, that will depend on the government's priorities and whether there is any additional funding. However, the school would be interested in exploring further action, or an extension, with similar activities.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

The school recently decided to stop offering language training. The federal institutions will have to turn to the private sector from now on. In the event a similar project or another pilot project is provided for in the next Roadmap, would the school still have the capacity to carry out that project?

[Nancie Cantin]

In response to your first question, that depends on the government's funding and priorities. Currently, we would not have the capacity or money to do that. That will really depend on those factors.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

The Treasury Board is engaged in a large project to find reductions in government spending. In light of the fact that we're not going to every department now to get a report every year on official languages, does the department have a plan in place to ensure that, while this project is ongoing, there isn’t a cumulative negative effect on official languages communities? I ask that because for the Commissioner of Official Languages and for many of the groups we've seen in this committee, their biggest concern is the cumulative effect—that everything could be nickeled and dimed, with little changes here and there, which could add up to a drastic effect. Is there a plan in place to ensure that this doesn't happen and to protect our official languages?

[Ross MacLeod]

Yes. What you're describing is what the commissioner has called the unintended consequences of these decisions. I can't comment, of course, on the decisions themselves. We have been very active to ensure that official languages considerations are reflected. I'll also add that in every Treasury Board submission that gets done, we play a role in ensuring that our colleagues at Treasury Board give due consideration to OL in all propositions made to the board.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

If and when there are plans in place, would it be possible to provide them to the committee?

[Ross MacLeod]

Not in terms of the advice we would provide to ministers.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

No, not the advice, but if there's an actual plan in place to ensure those unintended consequences don't happen....

[Ross MacLeod]

I think we would be able to provide a description of how we actually did that—a framework, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you. If you can provide that to the clerk to be distributed to members of the committee, that would be great.

Mr. Menegakis, go ahead.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I too would like to welcome you to our committee and to thank you for your presentations and your responses to our questions. So far, I've found them to be both professional and informative. I certainly appreciate getting that feedback from you, particularly because all three of your groups are partners in the road map, and it's important for us to hear from the partners. The road map represents an investment of roughly a billion dollars for our government. One of the major reasons why we are studying it midway through is to see what its impact has been to date and to hear from you. It's very important information for us.

In that regard, I was particularly encouraged to hear about some of the accomplishments—it's a good news story here as well. I want to focus a little bit on that. Without belittling everything else you've said, certainly the efforts by HRSDC with the day care initiative I think are very important.

The partnering with the universities, 10 universities, is an excellent effort. Of course, we'd like to see every university, but Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. That was a great initiative. I was very encouraged to hear that there's an increase in the incumbents in bilingual positions, from 91.7% pre road map to, I think you said, 94.4% as of March 31, 2011. Those are all good things to hear.

Of course, we want to see where we're going with our road map. As you know, it comes to an end in 2013. Very soon, we're going to be looking at the next road map. I'd be very interested to hear from each of the groups here, and all of you if you like, about some of the things you would like to see. First of all, would you like to see the next phase of the road map...would you like to see the road map continued? If so, where would you focus your efforts? What would you like to see in the next road map?

[Ross MacLeod]

From the point of view of the Treasury Board Secretariat, if the government decided to go ahead with a new road map, we would obviously participate.

The President of the Treasury Board has several responsibilities under the Official Languages Act, and we would like to continue that important work in collaboration with our partners through the road map. I think it focuses really on sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Official Languages Act and the responsibilities there. We would like to continue to do that work in support of the president with his responsibilities.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

Madame Cantin.

[Nancie Cantin]

If there is a continuation of this initiative, the School of Public Service would definitely be interested in exploring possibilities, given that its roles and mandate are, among other things, to facilitate access to language training and language learning across the country and to continue developing learning and skill maintenance products. In that context, it might be good to explore future possibilities.

[David McGovern]

Thanks very much for the question.

I share the sentiments expressed by my two colleagues. One of the important things to remember is that our department is still obligated under the Official Languages Act. The part I'm most familiar with is part VII, which is the advancement of English and French. I'll just read you a brief line:

Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that positive measures are taken for the implementation of the commitments under subsection (1).

Subsection (1) says:

The Government of Canada is committed to (a) enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development;

That doesn't change, whether there's a road map or not.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

There are 17 partners in the road map. We obviously have the entire ministry and this group here. I'd like to hear how you would describe the interdepartmental cooperation on the road map.

Do you care to comment on that?

[Ross MacLeod]

I believe this is a good partnership for those working on the Roadmap.

It's a very integrated package and covers a wide range of government activities. I think what's good about it is that it doesn't isolate official languages from the normal activity of government. It helps enable those to happen throughout the various activities of the partners, in particular with the Conseil du Trésor.

[Nancie Cantin]

For my part, as regards our little initiative, unlike those of much larger partners than we are, the fact that this is a horizontal contribution means that the scope is much greater and can produce better results.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Be brief, Mr. McGovern.

[David McGovern]

I can only reinforce what my colleagues have said. The issues and challenges we face at HRSDC are horizontal in nature. There's literally nothing we do that doesn't have the involvement of other departments and other levels of government communities. So the strength of the road map—the horizontality with other federal departments—has been a very significant benefit to us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Monsieur Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I can't help but make a comment to the representatives of the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development. You say your purpose is to ensure a human presence for Canadians, but there will be only 22 offices left in Canada. The human presence is the numbers one, two, three and four that people press. Soon they'll be pressing numbers five, six, seven and so on. Is that it, your human presence? I can't help but say that.

Furthermore, with regard to the pilot projects, I would perhaps recommend that the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development go west—as Mr. Boughen said, you don't find many francophones there—and take along some translators to help the workers in Fort McMurray. They should be able to pass their tests in English because, if they can't pass them, they will lose their jobs and have to return to Acadie or Quebec. If only we could get francophones there rather than strangers who speak neither French nor English. I had to get that off my chest.

Ms. Cantin, you have responsibilities. If there is a report, I don't believe it is solely on the Roadmap. You tell us you can't give us the report. However, does that report exist?