Evidence of meeting #43 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was c-13.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Yes, but I would not want you to give us a long spiel.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Yes, it's important, but it's also important that I get answers to my questions.
12:35 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
What it is important to understand is that Treasury Board's role is internal to the government while, as we know, the role of the Department of Canadian Heritage is external. By dividing that role, Treasury Board will be able to focus on ensuring compliance.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Minister, I apologize for interrupting you. Forget...
Mr. Chair, may I be allowed to interrupt her?
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
Could we not have answers and questions, without interruption? I'm having trouble following.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Minister, I am going to change questions, because you do not seem to want to answer my question.
Mr. Chair, you can restart the clock.
Minister, Senator Pierre De Bané, a big Liberal, had warned the then Minister of Canadian Heritage that he would be unable to implement the Official Languages Act effectively; he foresaw that "all that provision will do is cause you frustration."
We have known for close to 35 years that Mr. De Bané was right. Bill C-13 exacerbates the problem by expanding the role of the Minister of Canadian Heritage of promoting and encouraging coordination in the implementation of the entire act.
When the government claims to govern based on evidence, why is it working so hard to extend an implementation model, one that has been shown to be ineffective for over three decades, to the entire act?
12:40 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
Under the approach we want to adopt, the role of Treasury Board would be as a central body that monitors, evaluates and ensures compliance with Parts IV, V, VI and VII of the Official Languages Act.
We will leave it up to the Department of Canadian Heritage offices to continue to apply their expertise from an external perspective, given their knowledge of the field. This will enable Treasury Board to actually verify compliance on the part of institutions within government.
That is the role being proposed for Treasury Board in Bill C-13, so it can assume more responsibilities than before and will be able to devote its efforts to monitoring and evaluating and to ensuring compliance with the various measures and programs that will be implemented.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Minister.
What is there in Bill C-13 that gives you the power to take on obligations of result in each government department?
12:40 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
I'm not sure I understand your question.
I want to clarify that Treasury Board is going to be able to establish an official languages policy centre so that it can evaluate and monitor the various federal institutions and ensure that the work they do for Canadians is in compliance.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
In fact, Minister, my question was very simple.
As President of the Treasury Board, do you have the necessary tools for taking on an obligation of result for the various departments?
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
There is nothing about that in the act. You do not have that power.
12:40 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
We are going to have that power in the actual new act. We are going to assign the responsibilities to Treasury Board. Then, when we pass this bill, which I hope will be very soon, we will be able to make the necessary regulations so we can perform our role. As I said earlier, we are going to report annually on Treasury Board's efforts.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
We will take all the time it takes before passing this bill.
Those are the results I want, Minister.
I want to thank you for your collaboration during this examination. I don't want to be disrespectful, but time constraints are an annoyance.
Thank you.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
Indeed, it's not the chair who is annoying, it's the time constraints.
Mr. Iacono will ask the next questions.
You have the floor for six minutes, Mr. Iacono.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I entirely agree that you are not annoying, but you play a very active role.
Hello, Minister.
As you can see, the whole team gets along very well.
We are happy to have you and your senior officials here.
What administrative measures is Treasury Board taking to strengthen the official languages?
12:40 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
Thank you for your question.
Again, I am very happy to answer all questions. I know your committee is working very hard to move this bill forward. We are all on the same wavelength in that regard.
To answer your question, I will say first that respect for official languages is not just a duty and a priority for our government; it is also essential for providing our services and carrying out our programs effectively. We are determined to provide federal services in accordance with our official languages obligations.
To achieve our objectives, we have followed the administrative measures set out in the White Paper, "English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada."
One of the things we are developing is a new second language training framework for the public service that will meet the needs of all learners, including the particular needs of Indigenous people and persons with disabilities.
We are also ensuring that positions in the public service are defined as bilingual where that is necessary. You know that it is done at an appropriate level of bilingualism and, as I said earlier, it is essential in order to create and maintain a work environment that encourages the use of the official languages in the public service. We are going to continue to protect and promote both official languages.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Minister.
Will Treasury Board be hiring new employees in order to perform the mandate assigned to it by Bill C-13?
12:45 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
That is a very good question.
We are hiring 23 full-time equivalent positions, and that will represent an annual investment of $4.3 million.
Does that answer your question?
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
12:45 p.m.
President of the Treasury Board
I believe it is, because we are committed to having a federal public service that continues to progress when it comes to official languages. The number of bilingual positions is constantly growing, from one year to the next.
According to a survey of federal public servants published in 2020, nine out of ten employees feel free to communicate with their immediate supervisor in the official language of their choice.
However, bilingual capacity deserves to be strengthened even further. That is why we are paying special attention to language training for our public servants.
I don't know whether you know this, Mr. Iacono, but over 40 per cent of federal jobs in the entire government require French and English.
I wanted to provide you with those figures.