Evidence of meeting #80 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Commissioner, in your presentation, you mentioned 600 active or backlogged complaints. However, over 400 of them concerned the same issue.
Can you consolidate them, or do you have to deal with them separately? Each complaint must cost a certain amount of money. If you have 400 complaints about the same issue, how do you proceed?
Commissioner of Official Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
On several occasions over the past two years, certain incidents sparked an influx of complaints. The 400 complaints concerned Aveos, which was an Air Canada subsidiary. The complaints had to do with the right to work in French that had been affected by the structural change. We had previously also received 800 complaints about Radio-Canada's decision to close the CBEF Windsor production centre. That decision led to not only 800 complaints, but also a court intervention regarding the responsibility.
When we receive a huge number of complaints, they are consolidated. However, that work often requires analysts to invest a significant amount of time, especially in a case like that of CBEF Windsor, where we knew in advance that the case would probably end up in court.
However, that is not necessarily more expensive than the case of a complaint on a complex issue, which requires more time, more investments and more consultations with our lawyers. The investigation can become very complicated, even if we are talking about a single complaint. So we cannot necessarily establish a connection between the number of complaints and the cost in terms of resources.
I will ask Ghislaine to elaborate on that.
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
In the case of the 437 complaints, we are indeed talking about a single investigation. In such cases, we consolidate the files. As the commissioner said, a large number of complaints can require a bit more time, but we do not conduct a separate investigation for each complaint. Only one inquiry is carried out.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
We are under the impression that many complaints are backlogged, but if 437 of them were consolidated, we wouldn't be talking about 600 complaints but rather 125. It would be considered as the same complaint, but repeated 437 times.
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Every complainant has rights. So we have to respond to each complaint individually. A file is opened for each complainant because, at the end of the process, every individual has the right to recourse if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation. That does not mean 437 investigations are carried out, but we have to deal with the files individually because of the complainants' rights.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
You can combine the two. The entire case will probably have the same outcome, but that does not necessarily cost more. The initial cost will be the same as that for another complaint. This should also be taken into account.
Commissioner of Official Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
No, but we cannot tell 436 people that they have been unsuccessful because someone before them had not submitted that complaint and that their rights will therefore not be taken into account. Every complainant's right must be respected, even if an investigation is conducted on the same incident.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Is it not considered a class action for the same complaint?
Commissioner of Official Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
No.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Okay.
How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
I will stop here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the officials for coming.
I have a quick technical question.
When you talk about how much is going to be spent on protection of language rights, the expenditures planned for this activity are $6.5 million. But when I look at the budget I see for the protection of language rights, it's $6.694 million and not $6.5 million. Is there a typo?
Then on the promotion of linguistic duality you're saying you are going to be spending $6.7 million, but it's $6.527 million. Has that been inverted? Yes. Okay. I can go home now.
I'm going through my comments on your brief when you state you have already audited certain aspects, whether it be National Defence or the Halifax airport authority. You already disclose where you are going to be auditing the next two times. Are you not displaying your hand?
Commissioner of Official Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
We haven't made that decision on the next two yet.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
It says here you're going to be looking at the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Commissioner of Official Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
That is a study rather than an audit.
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
It's an audit. We always inform the federal institutions that we're going to audit them.
Liberal
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
That depends. We inform them at the very beginning of our process. We meet with them, we explain to them what the process will consist of—
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
What kind of a timeframe are we talking about when it comes to the audit?
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
We don't have a pre-established timeframe. That depends on the extent of the audit and the number of institutions we will—
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So you have no deadline for submitting the audit findings?
Assistant Commissioner, Compliance Assurance Branch, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Usually, we follow the production schedule. We will begin those two audits this year, but they will probably be published sometime next year.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
The expenditures involved in those audits are reported each year. So it's not at the end, when the report is submitted, that the expenditures are—
