Official Languages Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2021

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

You said that two universities offered interpretation training. What steps do you have to take to become a parliamentary interpreter?

[Nicole Gagnon]

You certainly have to do your studies at this time to work for the Government of Canada. The translation bureau only hires interpreters who have a master's degree and you....

I'm sorry, Mr. Dubourg. Do I have only one second or one minute left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

You have one minute.

[Nicole Gagnon]

Okay.

What we need is to invest so that we have more training opportunities to prepare the next generation of interpreters to do the work, so no, you don't have to go through the route of a master's, but if you want to work for the Parliament of Canada.... This is the highest institution in our land in terms of democracy. It's the seat of democracy.

We have to meet exams to work with the bureau. The accreditation exam is the gold standard the world over. Canada is recognized for its quality of work, be it in interpretation, translation or terminology. It's a great source of pride to all Canadians that we have a stellar reputation in terms of these services, so—

I'm sorry. Mr. Dubourg has cut me off.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

That's all the time there was for that intervention.

Mr. Arseneault, you have the floor for the next five minutes.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Gagnon, I don't have much time and there are so many questions I could put to you. My colleagues have already asked you some good ones.

I'd like to take a look at the data on the health situation. I've read all the documents that were prepared for us for this meeting.

On page 34 of its May 2020 report, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs cited remarks by Greg Phillips, from the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, who said that 40 of the 70 staff interpreters were on sick leave at the time, either as a result of health issues related to current conditions, as you described, or because of childcare needs during the pandemic.

What is the situation, given the statistics you gave us earlier. Do the interpreters who are at home because their children are isolating there, or for other, auditory health reasons, have to be removed from the teams?

[Nicole Gagnon]

The survey we conducted of Translation Bureau staffers concerned employees on the job. Those who weren't at work as a result of the pandemic because they didn't have childcare services for their children weren't surveyed.

As for freelancers like me, once again, we answer the call. If we can't provide our services because we can't get childcare, we necessarily can't come to work on the Hill, which appreciably reduces the number of people available, unfortunately.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Yes, indeed.

Talking about surveys, we've received documents dated January 18, 2021 that refer to something I find intriguing.

Perhaps it's the fact I was a lawyer in a previous life that leads me to ask this question, but you say these injuries resulted in files being opened with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Is that a provincial agency?

[Nicole Gagnon]

Once again, these are staffers who filed incident reports and opened files. Yes, I believe it's a provincial agency, but I wouldn't swear to it.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

That's important for us. I'm referring to page 11 of the document that all members of the committee have in hand.

Am I correct in thinking that it's the equivalent of New Brunswick's Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission or Quebec's Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, the CNESST?

[Nicole Gagnon]

Yes, I believe the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the WSIB, is the Ontario agency.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

All right.

So these complaints concern workplace injuries, such as auditory injuries, and the provincial agency didn't take action on those files.

Is that correct?

[Nicole Gagnon]

I don't know whether there was any follow-up. I imagine those cases will be investigated in due course. We were talking about complaints from employees who unfortunately may not get the follow-up they want.

I have nothing else to say on the matter. You should contact the Translation Bureau, which is in better position to answer the question.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

According to the document I'm referring to, it seems that 62% of respondents got no response to the file they opened with that provincial agency.

I don't want to go back over what you said. We talked about headsets, microphones and the need to use a direct line, not WiFi, but there's also the last-minute work you have to do in a hurry because witnesses are called at the last minute and documents are provided to you at the very last second. That prevents you from doing your preliminary work before you arrive at the committee meeting, as you explained earlier.

What impact does this new situation have? And is it really a new situation, or did these kinds of unexpected events occur before the pandemic as well? Did the members of a committee sometimes summon a witness at the last minute and provide you with documents at the last second?

[Nicole Gagnon]

Witnesses have always appeared at the last minute at the request of the various committees; that's for sure. However, we see that this definitely occurs more often now that we work remotely.

If you remember the good old days when we were in the committee room, the clerk could distribute the documents that had been received to us. They were sent by email in advance, the day before, if they were available. Otherwise we received them when we arrived for work. We always got to the committee room very early so we could study the documents.

So the impact that has, now we no longer have that service, is that we no longer get the documents, or else we get them on our computer. Imagine receiving 30 briefs that you have to prepare on your computer. You have to print and comb through it all. So the impact is that we aren't as well prepared as we would like to be when we arrive for work, and that's reflected in the service we provide you. I'm not a lawyer. I can't discuss the various legal issues pertaining to the legislation on medical assistance in dying, for example.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Arseneault.

Thanks to our witnesses for their testimony.

Ms. Nicole Gagnon, you are your organization's advocacy lead. Thank you. You are here with Mr. Jim Thompson, who is its communications counsel for the Canada region. Thank you for your intervention. We now continue.

[Nicole Gagnon]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

[Jim Thompson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for your strong interest in this.

It is very appreciated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

I will suspend for a few seconds so the next witnesses can be seated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

We will resume.

The committee is meeting today on its study: Challenges of the Parliamentary Interpretation Service in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name, but if the question is addressed to you, you may respond. When you are ready to speak, you can click on the microphone icon to activate your mic. A reminder that all comments should be addressed through the Chair.

Interpretation in this videoconference will work very much like in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of either Floor, English or French. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mic should be on mute.

Having said that, I would like to extend a warm welcome to some people who are used to crossing over to the House of Commons from time to time: Charles Robert, Clerk of the House of Commons; Eric Janse, Clerk Assistant; and Stéphan Aubé, Chief Information Officer.

The three of you will have a total of seven and a half minutes to make a presentation. I will tell you when you have one minute left and when your time is up.

Go ahead, Mr. Robert.

[Charles Robert, Clerk of the House of Commons]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the invitation to address the committee in relation to its study on the “Challenges of the Parliamentary Interpretation Service in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

The role of the House Administration in the provision of interpretation services is limited and focuses on the technical infrastructure. As you know, the interpreters are employed by the Translation Bureau, an agency of Public Services and Procurement Canada. The House is responsible for providing the facilities and tools required by the interpreters to support proceedings.

Over the years, and throughout the pandemic, the Administration has continued to work hand in hand with the Translation Bureau to ensure the health and safety of the interpreters and offer the high-quality interpretation services required by parliamentarians to do their work.

It is my understanding that you will be hearing from the Translation Bureau at a future meeting and that their representatives will be able to share with you information as to the many measures that they have put into place to address this situation.

Since the introduction of hybrid proceedings less than a year ago, the administration's senior management team has been keeping me apprised of the actions taken to ensure that the House's technological infrastructure could support a safe and rapid transition to the new hybrid environment.

Furthermore, the issue before you has been the subject of considerable discussion at recent meetings of the Board of Internal Economy. Information provided to the board by the administration was shared with the chair of the Liaison Committee, who in turn shared it with all committee chairs.

I will provide you with a brief overview of the investments and improvements that have been undertaken to enhance the safety and audio quality of our interpretation system. Along with my colleagues Stéphan and Eric, I will be ready to answer any questions you may have.

As participants in hybrid proceedings, you will already be familiar with some of these initiatives.

The equipment that participants use has a considerable impact on sound quality and a direct impact on interpreters capacity to do their work in adequate and secure fashion. For this reason, we provide Members of Parliament with high-quality headsets with integrated microphones. Given the importance of good connectivity for audio quality, the Administration implemented a comprehensive review of connectivity services available to all Members in their ridings and helped procure upgraded Internet services where necessary. We also reallocated resources to offer enhanced IT support to Members in order to provide hands-on and timely assistance.

Another critical variable that impacts the audio quality of proceedings is the technology and equipment used by witnesses. This is a challenging variable to control, especially in instances where appearances before a committee are organized on short notice. To help mitigate this, we are extending a program whereby we systematically reach out to witnesses to schedule testing of their equipment and connections prior to their participation in committee meetings. In the recent past, this was done by email, but we will now do so by telephone, and it is our hope that the new process will increase results.

Furthermore, we have for many months now shipped headsets to witnesses who may be in need of them, and we have also offered to test connections, something that we will now be insisting on.

We also continue to make significant technological investments in our precinct infrastructure, all in keeping with evolving health and safety recommendations. For instance, noise-limiting interpretation consoles were installed in all 17 committee rooms, as well as in two multi-purpose rooms in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building.

We also set up additional simultaneous interpretation booths: two interpretation booths were added in all committee rooms and three were added to support the Chamber. This was done to allow for better physical distancing as per public health guidelines and to allow for easier and more timely cleaning of the booths.

Our technicians also improved audio programming and system configurations for the Chambers’ sound systems to reduce instances of echo. Updates were also made to the Zoom videoconferencing platform to enhance the user experience.

On the topic of Zoom, I should point out that most parliaments that are operating in a virtual manner are using the Zoom platform, including parliaments using more than one language, such as ours. We are in constant contact with colleagues in other parliaments in order to share best hybrid parliament practices.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that this summer, we participated, with the Translation Bureau, in reviews of the sound system and health and safety protocols in the Chamber and in two committee rooms. The results of these reviews, which were conducted by National Research Council of Canada, were very positive. We are currently focused on facilitating further analysis and possible future fine-tuning of the systems and equipment.

We remain committed to collaborating with Public Services and Procurement Canada so that we can continue to make improvements to the work environment of our interpreters. The commitment to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for everyone is shared by all in the parliamentary community and remains the highest priority in the current environment.

Thank you for the opportunity to address this important topic. Eric, Stéphan and I would be pleased to answer your questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much, Mr. Robert.

We will now go to questions from members of the committee. The first round of questions will be for six minutes.

Mr. Williamson, you have the floor.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to yield my speaking time to my colleague Mr. Généreux, but first I would like to thank the interpreters who have come to testify.

Your work is already very difficult when members speak well in English and French, but even more difficult when members like me speak reasonably well but still make mistakes.

It was very interesting this evening to hear you talk about the problems you're experiencing, and I'm eager to find some solutions. Without your efforts, the House of Commons would be very different and inaccessible for many Canadians. Thank you very much for that.

I now yield my speaking time to Mr. Généreux.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you for your remarks, Mr. Williamson.

Go ahead, Mr. Généreux.