Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[Lucie Séguin, Vice-President, Corporate Services, Translation Bureau, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

By the end of May.

[Marie Lemay]

So in early spring.

As for the statistics—

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

What's the purpose of the study exactly? What questions is each department being asked?

[Lucie Séguin]

The goal is aligned with the evaluation policy. We want to determine the tool's relevance and performance, and see whether the tool achieves the objective set at the outset. We are also going to speak with the users.

The most recent statistics indicate that about 500,000 requests have been made through this tool, in English and in French. So the tool works. It is for internal use within the federal government only. We have implemented all the recommendations of this committee's members.

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

Parliamentarians don't yet have access to Portage, if I'm not mistaken. Do any parliamentarians currently have access to Portage?

[Lucie Séguin]

No. The tool can only be used by public service employees, because the underlying terminology, lexicons and databases correspond to the language used within the public service.

That said, as our deputy minister said, the evaluation will allow us to see how the tool is perceived. We will be able to establish a plan based on that.

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

Would it be possible to inform our committee of the study's findings when it is released? I suppose it will be made public, because everything is public, at the federal level.

[Marie Lemay]

Yes.

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

We would like to know the outcome of the study.

You said that there have been 500 requests…

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

You can finish your question.

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

You said that there had been 500 translation requests, in fact—

[Marie Lemay]

500,000.

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

Right. Excuse me.

I still don't find that this is very many.

In fact, it isn't 500,000 words, but 500,000 requests for translation, so it may be paragraphs or whole documents.

[Lucie Séguin]

It's 500,000 expressions or sentences that have been put into the tool. It's the number of times that someone has clicked on the “translate into English” or “translate into French” button, after which the tool gives the meaning of the expression or sentence.

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

Right.

[Lucie Séguin]

As requested, we have also added a notice to encourage people to use the services of the Translation Bureau and its professionals if they need official translations. We have also clarified the terms used and changed the name of the tool.

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

When the report comes out, you can certainly expect to come and comment to this committee.

[Marie Lemay]

It will be a pleasure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Généreux.

Before we finish, I simply want to mention that, behind every minister, there are teams like yours. On behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the excellent work you are doing on this. Ms. Lemay, thank you to you and your team for the effort you've made, and fairly quickly, with regard to the Translation Bureau.

[Adam Gibson]

Thank you.

[Marie Lemay]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That ends our meeting for today.

Once again, thank you very much.