Official Languages Committee on March 7th, 2016

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

Good afternoon. Thank you for being here with us this afternoon.

Ms. Thornton, a bit earlier you referred to surveys taken to determine, among other things, the level of satisfaction public servants feel with regard to the language spoken at meetings. You said that francophones seemed less satisfied with regard to the language used.

Given the results of these surveys, what are you doing to correct the situation?

[Sally Thornton]

After receiving the results of these surveys, every department creates an implementation plan. We set priorities and we implement an action plan.

[Marc Tremblay]

We will report on our activities to follow up on the results of the 2014 survey in the 2014-2015 “Annual Report on Official Languages”, so stay tuned.

Basically, our role is to ask the questions, analyze the replies and transmit the results to the individuals who are responsible for official languages, the champions among others. In this way they are made aware of the results for their organization as compared to the overall results for federal institutions, and of whether their performance is better or worse on any given question.

Afterwards, when we have identified certain issues, for instance the official language used during meetings, the official languages centre of excellence organizes meetings. Working groups attempt to identify the best tools and practices to be shared with all of the institutions. We may, for instance, ask those who have had a good performance rating what they have done to obtain these results and how other institutions could learn from their experience.

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

You spoke about 2014. Has this been done for 2015?

[Marc Tremblay]

The survey is only administered every three years.

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

It is done once every three years?

[Marc Tremblay]

There was a survey in 2011.

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

I understand.

[Marc Tremblay]

The results of the 2014 survey are known, of course. We are going to highlight them in our next annual report.

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

If the 2011 survey allowed you to find potential improvements, and if your champions explained to the others how to adopt better practices, did you see an improvement between 2011 and 2014 with regard to the language spoken by public servants?

[Marc Tremblay]

We did not see a marked improvement. There may be different explanations for that. One of them is that our capacity to analyze the results in a more systematic way has improved considerably. I am talking about the official languages centre of excellence, the Secretariat of the Treasury Board and of the institutions. Today, we are better able than three years ago to make diagnoses and obtain more precise figures for a given organization, or even a given sector. This may have improved the capacity of institutions to determine where their real weaknesses were. We are better equipped today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Tremblay.

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here.

My first question is about the fact that the Liberals said they would respect the Official Languages Act and that they were going to make this a priority.

Did ministers Joly and Foote make recommendations to you concerning the new directions your work might take with respect to official languages?

[Marc Tremblay]

The Treasury Board Secretariat works very hard to always respect instructions and ensure that Treasury Board policies are complied with, particularly in communications and services. It verifies compliance with those requirements through the reviews and annual reports we have just talked about.

As I mentioned earlier, we are also completing the review of the linguistic designation of positions. This will be another important factor to continue to ensure full compliance with part IV of the act regarding communications and services, since we must review the linguistic designation of all of our points of service every 10 years.

As for the other measures, we are working in close cooperation with Heritage Canada to develop the horizontal initiative for official languages. The department representatives mentioned it a few days ago. When we have the results, we will be happy to come and discuss them with you.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you very much.

Last January, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, published a document entitled “Audit of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat within the context of the 2011-2012 Strategic and Operating Review”. In it, he severely criticizes non-compliance with part VII of the Official Languages Act. He states that nothing indicates that the government had a strategy to ensure the respect of official languages in its expenditure review. He mentions that there are consequences to this, and uses the term “collateral damage”. I expect that you have read this report, that you immediately took it into consideration and that you have begun to make improvements.

[Marc Tremblay]

You probably know, since this was published in the audit in question, that the Treasury Board Secretariat accepted the recommendations of the commissioner and that it is working to improve things.

It was suggested that an accountability framework be developed in order to better reflect the roles and responsibilities of the various entities for the different parts of the Official Languages Act. We also want to disseminate certain analysis tools that were considered to be effective. We have to ensure that these are distributed in due time, so that in future when institutions review their expenses, they take into account not only part VII, but also parts IV, V and VI, which are of particular concern to us.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Of course. Thank you very much for this very relevant reply.

The chief executive officer of the translation bureau will be with us later today, but I would nevertheless like to discuss this briefly.

There is now a cost recovery system to make the translation bureau financially independent; I think those are the terms that were used. However, in this calculation, “additional factors” are added, which a private translation company would not have to include. Concerning terminology, there is for instance the Termium tool, which is well-known and recognized and appreciated in many places around the world.

Why do we need to include that tool? Why are certain elements not excluded to ensure that there is a balance regarding translation and competition with the private sector? Why did you proceed in this way? Why not remove the “additional factors”?

[Marc Tremblay]

I think the translation bureau would be in the best position to answer that question.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

It is incumbent upon the Treasury Board to provide guidance, particularly on how money will be spent. It is also its duty to see to it that institutions comply with the Official Languages Act. You are saying that you are totally excluded from the cost recovery calculation. You gave no advice and you received no requests for guidance in that regard.

[Marc Tremblay]

That is not the mission of the official languages centre of excellence. There are other sectors within the Treasury Board Secretariat that can manage expenses and to whom the departments must submit their business plans.

Regarding official languages, the expenditure modes or cost assignment for translation is not a consideration that is directly related to the implementation of parts IV, V and VI of the Official Languages Act. These modes are not a part of those obligations. For us, what matters is—

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

I have one last question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

You can get back to it later.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

That's fine, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Samson, you have the floor.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Good afternoon. I thank both of you for your presentations.

Ms. Thornton, I appreciate the fact that the text of your presentation was also given to us in French, but there is no French version of the other two documents your office distributed. I only have an English version.