Official Languages Committee on April 11th, 2016

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

You mentioned benefits on page 15. Can you please explain what exactly are the biggest advantages in your opinion?

[Donald Barabé]

I would say the biggest advantages are quickness and understandability.

I will give you an example that has nothing to do with the government. I have food allergies. If I travel to China, I will be very glad to be able to take a photograph of a Chinese menu to get an idea of what it contains, as I do not understand Chinese.

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

There will be an application that will make it possible.

[Donald Barabé]

There already is one, Google Translate.

It's quick. It's a matter of 400 million pages per day, while the bureau produces 1.5 million pages per year. I can assure you that the quality of the 400 million pages cannot hold a candle to the quality of the bureau texts.

That gives you a bit of an idea. It's quick, and we get a general sense of what the document is talking about.

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

What you just said is extremely important. The software's deployment is being delayed for various valid reasons. However, we are in 2016, so it has to get done eventually.

You just said that everyone in the European Union has access to the software the EU invented and implemented. I assume that EU governments did that.

[Alan Bernardi]

We are talking about 22 languages in that case.

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

And not two.

I have covered everything I wanted to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

Mr. Choquette, go ahead for three minutes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Regarding the implementation of the translation tool, I asked Ms. Achimov whether any risk analyses had been carried out on the respect of official languages, and she told me that there was a pilot project. Unless I'm mistaken, you participated in that project.

[Alan Bernardi]

No.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

You have used the tool....

[Alan Bernardi]

We have not touched the current version. All that we know comes from newspaper articles.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

I put the question to Ms. Achimov, and she told me about a pilot project. I thought you had participated in it. I asked her whether a report was published, and she said no. I also asked the Commissioner of Official Languages, with whom we will be meeting in a week or two, whether he has assessed risk. He said that his office did not have the expertise needed to do so.

Who do you think would have the expertise to assess the risks related to implementing this software in the government machine? As you explained, it would be a matter of determining whether instructions are provided for the tool to be used appropriately.

[Alan Bernardi]

It is probably possible to see who within the department is using the tool, to see whether it is being used for emails, and so on. In terms of the technology, that is possible, but the issue should be analyzed more thoroughly before I can give you an answer.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

My question has to do with the Official Languages Act. As we know, the introduction of this tool was bungled a bit, particularly by Ms. Achimov.

As time is running short, I will wrap up by asking you whether the Translation Bureau's management should include some translators who know how to implement such a tool.

[Donald Barabé]

Absolutely.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

Are there any further comments or questions? No?

Thank you for your excellent presentation.

We will continue our work next Wednesday afternoon. We will then hear from the representatives of the University of Ottawa, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, and the Language Industry Association.

Next Monday, we will welcome the representatives of the Université de Moncton.

Would you like us to hear from the Translation Bureau representatives again?

Mr. Choquette, go ahead.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't want us to hear from them again. We have already heard from them. They have spent about two hours with us. In my opinion, they said what they had to say, and I think we listened to them.

Our time is limited, since other studies have to get off the ground. I also think that Mr. Vandal has an interesting study to propose.

For those reasons, I would prefer for us to focus our efforts on the upcoming witnesses.

I also propose that we submit a report to the House when we complete the study. I am proposing that right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I suggest that, during the second hour, after we hear from the Université de Moncton representatives, we discuss the content of the report we will submit.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Is that okay with you? It is? Very good.

Thank you for you excellent presentation and your contribution to this study.

[Donald Barabé]

Thank you for inviting me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

The meeting is adjourned.