Good morning and thank you.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I am pleased to be here today to speak about PWGSC's progress with respect to the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.
I am joined today by Diane Lorenzato, assistant deputy minister of Human Resources Branch.
It's a real pleasure for me to be here addressing this committee for the first time.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my predecessor, Francine Kennedy, for her dedication and hard work in implementing the department's initiatives in response to the road map. I'll also talk about these initiatives shortly.
I'd like to begin by describing the role the Translation Bureau plays in promoting linguistic duality.
The Translation Bureau is the second-largest translation institution in the world. In 2010-11, the bureau translated more than 1.7 million pages in all areas of federal government activity, as well as provided translation and interpretation for over 2,000 parliamentary sittings and parliamentary committees such as these. The bureau also manages TERMIUM, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic databank, which contains almost 4 million English and French terms. The databank is used by teachers, students, writers, and translators, among others, in Canada and all over the world.
I would also like to highlight the recent efforts by the Translation Bureau to modernize its activities.
To achieve this objective, the Translation Bureau has adopted a transformation strategy that involves the use of new language technology and streamlined business processes.
In order to respond rapidly to the changing needs of Canadians and their government, the Translation Bureau is fully leveraging technology to provide its services via new channels such as social media.
Returning to today's main topic, I am pleased to report that, in response to commitments made by the federal government in the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality, the Translation Bureau launched the Language Portal of Canada and implemented the Canadian language sector enhancement program in 2009.
The portal funded by the road map—and we'll be showing you a short demo momentarily—provides free Internet access to the national collection of Canadian linguistic resources, such as online dictionaries, writing tools, and quizzes that help users improve their English and French skills. Canadian Internet users can go to the portal site and find anything they need to study, work, and communicate more effectively in both official languages. The portal currently contains more than 2,800 Canadian language resources, including about 1,800 links, 600 articles, and 400 linguistic games. The portal received over 29 million hits in the last 11 months alone. This is a significant increase from the 14 million hits recorded in the previous year.
To date, 14 Canadian partners have signed cooperation agreements, including the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick. These partners have authored close to 50 articles that have been posted on the portal.
The portal is also receiving positive feedback from visitors. In fact, it was listed as one of the 10 best websites for French improvement by the Centre collégial de développement de matériel didactique in its web directory for 2011-12. We're very proud of that.
This Canadian organization produces print, digital and online materials for teaching staff and students throughout the Quebec college system. Its mandate is to ensure that students in the system have access to quality educational materials in both French and English.
The Translation Bureau also promotes linguistic duality through the Canadian language sector enhancement program. Its purpose is to support the development of a skilled linguistic labour force, and strengthen the capacity of the language industry in Canada. Funding for this program was given to Public Works and Government Services for five years, and that will end on March 31, 2013.
The program has two components. First is the university scholarships in translation program, which is intended to help post-secondary institutions increase the number of graduates in the field of translation. The second,
the language industry initiative, which helps strengthen the language industry's promotion and workforce development capacities and ability to integrate language technologies.
I am proud to note that, under the Canadian language sector enhancement program, 16 projects were funded.
At its conclusion in March 2013, it's expected that the program will have achieved its performance objectives. So far we have achieved the following impressive results. There were 1,200 scholarships awarded for a total of more than $2 million; student registration has already increased by 50% at the Université de Moncton; 145 internships in private enterprises were financed for $1.3 million; three college and university programs are being developed—online translation, a master's in interpretation, and a para-language program—and a campaign promoting translation careers through the Atlantic provinces was created. We will be showing you that as well.
This concludes my opening remarks.
Mark Olivier, manager of the Linguistic Services Division in the Translation Bureau's Terminology Standardization Directorate, will now give a demonstration of the Language Portal of Canada.
I will be pleased to answer your questions along with my colleague, Ms. Diane Lorenzato.
Merci. Thank you very much.