Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[Marie Lemay]

I arrived on April 11.

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

So it's quite easy for you. The action plan has to be reworked and this is an auspicious moment.

Between now and then, how do you intend to exercise your leadership to prepare the dossiers for the people who will be joining the team?

[Marie Lemay]

The most important role I will have to play over the new few weeks will consist in choosing the right person for the Bureau. The selection committee and I will conduct the interviews. We have to find the person who will be able to translate the vision the minister has set out for the Bureau into concrete terms. That is my first duty. As the Translation Bureau is part of the Public Services and Procurement Canada team, I work to support it. We work with these people on a continuous basis.

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

My colleagues have talked at some length about accountability. This aspect will certainly be discussed when the action plan is drafted. That is normal. In addition, it would be a good thing to inform our committee of developments once a year. I would like us to agree on that.

I would also like to know if the new five-year plan could be made available to the committee, so that it too may participate in this continuous improvement.

[Marie Lemay]

I think the idea of coming to see you on a more regular basis is an excellent idea. As I said earlier, I encourage you to invite the new CEO, once he or she has taken up the position, to share what you have heard with him. Obviously we are going to do so on our side, in the context of the report and recommendations, but please feel free to do the same. I am entirely open to that.

Now I want to set aside my deputy minister's hat to say this. I was listening to you earlier when the minister was here, and it made me proud to be a Canadian in this wonderful bilingual country. I congratulate the committee on its work. When you want to invite us to come back, we will be here.

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

I'd like to stop there. I would like to tell you that we are a nice committee, but extremely efficient.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Samson.

Mrs. Boucher and Mr. Généreux will now share their time.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You gave us some figures, but I didn't make a note of them. Still, it was an increase, and I spontaneously wondered whether this increase was due to the fact that new members were less bilingual.

[Marie Lemay]

We found that many more committee meetings were being held publicly, which means that, in many cases, translation was needed. This in large part explains the increase in volume.

I don't know whether Mr. Gibson can think of anything else that might explain this.

[Adam Gibson]

First of all, this is due to the growing number of committee meetings. For example, committees are working more often during the summer. In addition, meetings are held in public much more often than in camera. Moreover, there really are a lot of televised committee meetings, so much more subtitling is needed. This increase in Parliament's work is definitely measurable.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

In other words, we can't conclude that it is because people are less bilingual.

[Adam Gibson]

That isn't being assessed.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Okay.

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

The truth is that the Liberals' approach is much more transparent. There are many more explanations and communication on the ground.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Excuse me, Mr. Samson, but we are going to give the floor to Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to be given the time he just used. Thank you.

I would like to thank Ms. Lemay and the other witnesses present.

I come from the private sector, where a person can be called upon to manage growth and negative growth. I've had the opportunity to do both, and I can tell you that growth is much more manageable than negative growth. That's pretty obvious.

It's never good to eliminate positions or apply budget or other cuts. I'm not excusing the behaviour of the government at the time, which I was a member of. We had decided to apply cuts, but very rational elements were at the root of those decisions, which affected every department and were sometimes difficult. That said, one very important factor, I think, that has contributed to the decrease in the number of translators and interpreters is the contribution of new technologies.

As I understand it, the number of words translated in a year went from 28 million to 60 million, but the number of employees remained the same. I think these people should receive a bonus, since their workload has increased so much.

So I'll reiterate my question. Has the technology contributed to the considerable reduction in people required to do the same work?

[Marie Lemay]

I would like to come back to the increase in the volume of work and the people at the Translation Bureau.

Based on our business model, we use the private sector during peak periods at the Translation Bureau. At peak times, we work together. In addition, it is important to nurture the language industry outside the government. Maintaining this balance is very important. I just wanted to clarify that.

And technology does, indeed, have an impact. The linguistic world is also transforming. We must continue to use new technologies, but all of this can be done with respect for translation and interpretation professionals, for bilingualism and both official languages, as well as for quality. Succeeding in achieving that will be fascinating in the coming years. That is what we want.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I fully agree with you on that.

Much has been said about Portage, the translation tool that will be put in place later. What is Portage's status? Can you elaborate on that?

Some witnesses have commented on the quality of the Portage tool, for example with respect to the corpus and what feeds the machine in order to give the best possible translation. Where are we now with respect to that?

[Marie Lemay]

My colleagues can add something, but I would say that 39 departments now have access to Portage.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Out of how many potential departments?

[Marie Lemay]

I imagine we could make it available to the 101 departments and agencies.

I listened to the conversations that took place on Portage at the beginning, and some aspects surprised me. Based on your comments, we have been able to clarify all that. Portage gives all public servants the opportunity to express themselves in their mother tongue. That's the purpose of Portage. For example, I can write a few words in French to an anglophone, and Portage will allow that person to understand them. That really is the goal with this tool.

We did a trial—

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Excuse me, Ms. Lemay. There has been a lot of discussion about the fact that it's a comprehension tool, not a translation tool. So you are confirming that it really is a comprehension tool and not for translation.

[Marie Lemay]

Absolutely. It's a comprehension tool.

We have hired a company to do a study on the system's performance, relevance, and efficiency. We can share the study's findings with you.

Ms. Séguin, when will we have them?