Mr. Chair, members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, thank you for inviting us to testify about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the government's ability to provide information in both official languages.
My name is Alex Silas, and I am the Regional Executive Vice-President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada for the National Capital Region. With me is my union sister Chantal Fortin, Alternate Regional Executive Vice-President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, PSAC.
I was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. My family moved to Ottawa when I was younger. I am a proud Acadian, a French-speaking and bilingual people willing to stand up and defend our rights.
PSAC represents more than 48,000 members in the National Capital Region. A little over a year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic entered our lives. As weeks turned into months, our members rolled up their sleeves and continued to provide essential public services to Canadians to support them throughout the pandemic.
Even before the pandemic, the truth is that problems had been noted with bilingualism in the federal public service. Lacking measures to protect bilingualism, the right to work in the official language of our choice and our ability to communicate with the public in both official languages, our response to the pandemic has been affected.
If bilingualism were a priority for the Treasury Board, it would put concrete practices in place to support French in the workplace instead of simply sending out memos to encourage its use. The pandemic has made the situation worse.
To talk about what we see in workplaces, I would like to yield the floor to my union sister, Chantal Fortin.