Official Languages Committee on Nov. 29th, 2016

[Marc Tremblay]

I'll be able to forward the answers to your specific questions later.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Please. I would really like that.

Mr. Lussier, I am on pages 12 and 13 of your report. You have worked hard on this. With all those tools, do you really feel that we are promoting both official languages across Canada?

[Hubert Lussier]

If you had specific questions, I could tell you where we're making progress and where we're doing less. That said, I think our investments are yielding results overall.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Okay.

Can you tell us how many people at Canadian Heritage are preparing the horizontal evaluation and overseeing what is being done on the ground?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

Yes, absolutely. We can tell you later which teams carry out the various evaluations.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes. I would like to know how many people are assigned to implementation, evaluation, supervision, and so on.

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

We can certainly give you those details later.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Could you tell me how many people are working on this and ensuring that it's actually implemented.

[Hubert Lussier]

I'd like to add an important point.

At Canadian Heritage, there is a team that reports to Mr. Gauthier. Those people have feelers in several departments that work with them. Members of the roadmap and other departments have coordinators working with them.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Okay. It's important to include them.

Mr. Lussier, I think you've been at Canadian Heritage for a long time.

[Hubert Lussier]

Yes.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

It's been a number of years. So you've seen a number of things over the years.

Would it not be better for a single organization, such as Canadian Heritage or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, to coordinate all official languages departments and tools?

[Hubert Lussier]

The best way to answer your question is to refer you to what my colleague, Mr. Gauthier, explained about the committee of assistant deputy ministers on official languages.

It is important to note that this committee coordinates the roadmap, but it does more than that. Many of the issues being discussed at the committee and at the forum of directors general, which Mr. Gauthier mentioned, are beyond the scope of the roadmap. That's where the coordination of all official languages happens.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

You haven't answered whether it would be better to have a single organization in charge of that.

[Hubert Lussier]

I will still exercise my right of reservation, since I am here as a public servant. I am here to talk about facts, not to give my opinions.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

The goal is to ensure that people can get as many government responses as possible in English and French, no matter where they are in Canada.

You can't tell me what would be better, in your opinion.

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

Perhaps I can give you a couple of considerations that might shed some light for you.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes.

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

Depending on the structure of the legislation, all federal institutions must be accountable for official languages under their mandate. It is a way of ensuring that everyone is aware, but also responsible and accountable when it comes to official languages. That's something valuable that we do not want to lose.

This is what we often hear from civil society partners or community organizations that realize the importance of being able to connect with a department in both official languages.

We do not want it to be centralized. However, that is a challenge for us in terms of coordination. The 170 federal institutions on our lists for official languages all have roles on a sliding scale. They do not all have the same potential and the same opportunities to promote English and French or to ensure the development of official language minority communities.

We still have to find mechanisms to have those people interact and give the same guidelines. That is how the committee structure that Mr. Lussier mentioned is useful and valuable in bringing those together so that everyone can discuss them. This is how we are organized at the moment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

We continue with Mr. Lefebvre and Mr. Vandal, who will be sharing their time.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Gauthier, at the beginning of your presentation, you talked about $29.9 million over five years for your operating budget as part of the roadmap.

Is that right?

Does page 8 of your presentation show that the $29.9 million is being used to administer the roadmap for all those teams?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

Those resources are earmarked for the official languages branch for the coordination I mentioned earlier. That sort of affects committees, for example. They are also used to support the Treasury Board's Official Languages Centre of Excellence, which also performs those functions. I would have a hard time pointing it out exactly on the graph, but those resources do exist in departments.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Could you give us a better—

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

A description?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Yes. We have that, but we are talking about accountability. It says that the expenditures are at $30 million over five years, so $6 million a year, but we're having a hard time seeing where the resources are going.