Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting my colleague Susan Dubreuil and I to appear before the committee today.
I want to begin by acknowledging that we are on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
I would like to share what my organization has done to quickly adapt and to ensure that our obligations under the Official Languages Act were respected during the pandemic. I will also discuss actions the Public Service Commission took to ensure that departments and agencies were able to staff bilingual positions, including those in response to the crisis. Finally, I will provide you with some data on public service staffing that I hope the committee will find useful for its study.
To respect our obligations under the Official Languages Act during the pandemic, the Public Service Commission, or PSC, quickly adapted to changing circumstances. The department took action, both internally with its employees, in accordance with part V of the act, as well as in communications and services with its clients and with the public, in accordance with part IV of the act.
Since last March, all communications with employees have continued to be in both official languages simultaneously. This includes frequent email messages from myself, COVID-19 updates and any other internal communications to employees. Over the past nine months, we held three virtual bilingual all-staff meetings. We have been finding innovative solutions to deliver these events with simultaneous interpretation.
In my role as leader of the organization, I raise official languages obligations with my executive management team on a regular basis, and I insist that employees have the right to write and speak in their preferred official language.
When dealing with the public, all communications with Canadians have continued to be in both official languages and have been released simultaneously in both French and English. This includes the content on our website and social media, answering public inquiries and providing information sessions to job seekers. Prior to and throughout the pandemic, I have ensured that when invited to participate in any event, I always deliver my remarks in both official languages.
In response to the pandemic, the PSC has partnered with Health Canada in establishing an inventory of volunteers to support provinces, territories and the Canadian Red Cross in their urgent health human resource needs. All materials were bilingual. Communications with Canadians were in the official language of their choice. The safety, security and well-being of our clients and employees is critical to our service delivery and in designing new staffing and assessment solutions, but never at the expense of the Official Languages Act.
As you know, there are several organizations with responsibilities regarding official languages within the federal public service. In accordance with the Public Service Employment Act, deputy heads are responsible for establishing official language proficiency as an essential qualification required for the work to be performed. They are also accountable for ensuring their employees meet the official language requirements of their positions.
The office of the chief human resources officer is responsible for policies related to languages in communications and services to the public, as well as official languages in the workplace. It is also responsible for establishing second official language qualification standards. The PSC's primary role is in the assessment of official languages, including the provision of second language evaluation tests.
For the assessment of proficiency in the second official language for bilingual positions, the PSC appointment policy requires that all departments and agencies in the core public administration use PSC tests. These evaluations are administered in PSC test centres across the country, as well as in selected departments and agencies.
In addition, our tests are widely used by separate employers, such as the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canadian Armed Forces. These tests ensure that merit is met with respect to staffing bilingual positions, so that Canadians can be served in the official language of their choice, and public servants can work in the official language of their choice.
On an annual basis, the PSC conducts and oversees more than 100,000 second language tests. Our databases hold over four million test results, the majority of which are second language test results.
There are close to 86,000 bilingual positions in the federal core public administration, not counting separate agencies. This represents 43% of all core public administration positions.
The pandemic has impacted government operations in many areas. In our case, it has affected the capacity to conduct in-person second-language evaluation testing.
The PSC promptly put in place two temporary policy measures and supporting guidance. They provide more flexibility to departments and agencies in assessing second-language requirements for appointments to bilingual positions. Both measures are meant to ensure that merit with regard to official languages and linguistic obligations provided by the Official Languages Act are respected. These measures allowed deputy heads to recruit the bilingual talent needed to support efforts related to COVID-19 or to ensure the effective functioning of the Government of Canada.
A pulse survey with organizations was conducted to obtain feedback on these temporary measures and to give us a sense of their use. The survey showed that 90% of respondents indicated that the two measures were useful to respond to their staffing needs.
Furthermore, the PSC implemented new virtual second-language interviews—