Official Languages Committee on May 31st, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On page 5 of his presentation, the minister states, "For its part, Treasury Board Secretariat supports the federal institutions that are subject to the Act in fulfilling their obligations."

The third paragraph on page 6 reads as follows: "We make available to federal institutions tools to help manage official languages policies such as the 'Official Languages Management Dashboard'."

Can you tell me about this Official Languages Management Dashboard?

[Daphne Meredith]

Yes.

Mr. Tremblay, can you answer, please?

[Marc Tremblay]

The annual report contains a series of tables and indicators that have been measured for many years now, including participation, incumbents who meet the requirements of their positions, and so on. For each institution, the dashboard brings together this essential information, which is regularly amended and entered in the electronic systems for central public administration purposes. That updates the department's health picture, showing how many non-imperative staffing actions were taken in the last cycle, how many of its EX group employees meet the language requirements of their positions and how many do not. It also helps determine whether there are any indicators that deserve their attention.

Lastly, this enables the person responsible for official languages in the department to give the departmental champion, who is a senior official in the organization, a one-page tool. That page provides a snapshot of the challenges that have arisen and enables the champion to question why there have been a number of non-imperative staffing actions or whether there has been any change in that regard. The champion generally sits at the senior management table with the deputy minister and can therefore act as the official languages spokesperson or conscience to the deputy minister and to report whether there may be some changes to make, issues to monitor or measures to take to improve the program.

I will take this opportunity to single out the exemplary work that the official language officers are doing in the departments. These people often work in a human resources or staffing unit which carries on activities. They are on the front line in that regard.

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

Are there any initiatives in the departments such as the one in which they say that, on Tuesday morning, all those who are capable of doing so will speak French? I have previously seen a similar initiative at the Department of Natural Resources, where all those who were able to speak French worked in French on a particular morning. Does that exist elsewhere?

[Marc Tremblay]

Yes. As the occasion lends itself to this, I can refer you to the best practices guide, which is available on a website managed by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development called "Oser! Dare!". Our network of champions annually or regularly compiles and publishes best practices.

We talked about Sudbury a few weeks ago. A regional representative from the west told us that, in a region where the language of work is neither English nor French, employees in her organization meet once a week at lunchtime to talk about various business, film or cultural topics in French. They do that in order to improve their language skills and to establish a place where they can practise without the tension of having to use their second language in a parliamentary or senior management committee.

There are a number of initiatives of that kind in various departments. In showing these best practices, they encourage other departments that have not considered doing so to draw inspiration from it and make their own measures public.

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

The Treasury Board Secretariat develops policy instruments that will be adopted by the Treasury Board. What does the term "policy instruments" mean?

[Marc Tremblay]

Go ahead, Ms. Meredith.

[Daphne Meredith]

There is a set of policies that have been approved by Treasury Board. We are in the process of revising them in order to simplify them and to afford the institutions greater flexibility in exercising their leadership. Mr. Tremblay and his team are doing a lot of work with the departments to determine the key directions that should be included in our new policy. He could talk to you a little more about engagement with the departments and about our approach.

[Marc Tremblay]

Part VIII of the act grants us authority to issue policies and directives. The act very generally provides for certain obligations, such as the obligation of active offer. We are required to provide an active offer, but, between you and me, what is active offer? That should be clarified, and it is often through policies that we give departments clearer information on what should be done and the way it should be done. In the current policy review cycle, we have adopted an innovative way of consulting the departments, by using electronic platforms commonly called social media.

There were no participants when this electronic community started up two years ago. However, now there are almost 200. All that has been done because we use this method to put our policies forward and to survey the knowledge and reactions of the departments called upon to implement them so as to improve the products. That took on a life of its own, as a result of which we were able to create an electronic community based on practices and to achieve all kinds of other objectives.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Dionne Labelle.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I see that a range of tools are made available to the departments to follow up the official language evaluations. Among other things, there is a dashboard.

Could you tell us how many resources are allocated to official languages in Canada? Do you have an idea of what that represents in terms of positions, work and money?

[Marc Tremblay]

The financial evaluation of the program is a regularly recurring question. At the Treasury Board and, more broadly, at the Treasury Board Secretariat, the approach consists—out of necessity, I believe—in saying that the official languages budget is part of operating budgets. In other words, if a department wants a 100-office structure, some of those offices will be required to offer services in both official languages. There will be various needs, particularly translation needs. All that will be part of that department's operating costs. When the department requests funding from the Treasury Board Secretariat, it will have to take that factor into account. It will not request 10¢ for the francophone function and 90¢ for the rest, or the reverse.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

You do not have any information that would make it possible to determine that?

[Marc Tremblay]

There is some general information. Some expenditure items are reported.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

It is hard to see how the various institutions take the advancement of official languages into account over time, since we do not have figures on that. That is one of the conclusions we are coming to.

[Marc Tremblay]

There are no specific figures on that subject.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

You say a culture change is currently under way, that you want to make the departments and various institutions accountable. However, that culture change takes time. And there are culture changes in the machinery of government that are related to the cuts. Offices are being eliminated, positions centralized and some services to the public stopped.

In the context of those cuts, have guidelines been sent to the departments concerning the impact of the cuts on French-language services and the ability to interact with Canadian citizens in both languages?

[Marc Tremblay]

First, official languages are part of the routine in the Government of Canada. In principle, nothing has changed. The president, Mr. Clement, talked about that earlier. At the fundamental level, there is the act and a series of policies that are applicable, and everyone must comply with them at all times. According to the Official Languages Act, every federal institution must implement part IV, part V and so on. That is the foundation.

However, when the departments received the Treasury Board Secretariat's instructions for the purpose of carrying out their projects, official languages, among a number of other issues that had to be addressed, was clearly one of the factors the departments were urged to consider.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

From our point of view, certain French-language services in the departments and agencies have been disproportionately reduced. Consider, for example, the cuts to CBC/Radio-Canada, where 240 French-language radio and television positions have been cut as well as some 200 positions in the anglophone sector. That is disproportionate to the population served by that institution. It seems to me that is not in the official languages spirit.

[Marc Tremblay]

I will not speak directly to the example you cite. The government has put forward a plan of budget cuts. It appears that the departments will be reducing the scope of their services. If the envelope or scope of federal services is reduced, that will simply have an impact on service delivery.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Have your services analyzed that impact? Consider CBC/Radio-Canada, for example. How can cutting half the positions in the francophone sector help advance official languages? In what way does that comply or not comply with the Official Languages Act?

[Marc Tremblay]

You are asking me to speculate about—

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Are you going to analyze that after the fact?

[Marc Tremblay]

We measure the departments' compliance with their obligations under part IV. Are the points of service that are required to communicate with the public in both official languages doing that? Do the offices located in bilingual regions enable their employees to use their language at work and to create an effective workplace? We will continue measuring the compliance of the government's actions with the provisions of the act.