Official Languages Committee on April 8th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I call the meeting to order.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to meeting number 92 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, January 29, 2024, the committee is resuming its study of the language obligations related to the process of staffing or making appointments to key positions.

I'm not going to read all the instructions for testifying by videoconference that have been in effect since the COVID‑19 pandemic, since the Canadian Parliament is now an expert in the field. However, I would like to remind everyone in the room to ensure that their earpieces are not located near the microphone when they are speaking, to avoid feedback. In addition, in accordance with our housekeeping motion, I wish to inform the committee that all witnesses participating in the meeting by videoconference have completed the required sound and connection tests prior to the meeting.

I would now like to welcome the witnesses. Today, we have Justine Hendricks, president and CEO of Farm Credit Canada, and Angela Cassie, president of the Société de la francophonie manitobaine. Good afternoon, ladies.

Today there's a solar eclipse, and I'd like to say that it's happening on a very special day—the birthday of our favourite analyst, who just turned 31. So I'd like to wish Ms. Lecomte, who does an incredible job for the committee, a very happy birthday.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[Lucie Lecomte, Analyst]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

As you all know, I am very strict when it comes to speaking time. My colleagues sometimes give me happy or displeased looks, depending on how much time I allow. Look at the clock on your cell phone: if you have the floor for 6 minutes and you ask a question at 5 minutes 58 seconds, there won't be enough time for an answer. The reason I'm as strict as I am is that it allows us to do two rounds of questions. It's because of this that we can hear different questions and different points of view.

As usual, each witness will have five minutes to make their opening remarks. If a witness is unable to complete their statement in the five minutes allowed, they will have the opportunity to return to it by answering questions from the members.

Ms. Hendricks, the floor is yours for a maximum of five minutes.

[Justine Hendricks, President and Chief Executive Officer, Farm Credit Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to join you today. My name is Justine Hendricks and I'm the president and CEO of Farm Credit Canada, or FCC.

FCC is a Crown corporation headquartered in Regina. We've been serving Canada's agriculture and agri-food industry for more than 65 years. With a loan portfolio of over $50 billion, we support 103,000 customers with more than 2,500 employees and 103 offices across Canada. In 2023‑24, our customer service centres received more than 42,500 calls, of which 4,134 were in French.

I was appointed president and CEO just over a year ago, and I'm happy to talk to you about this organization. This afternoon, I'd like to discuss bilingualism and FCC's hiring process as it relates to the Official Languages Act, provide an overview of our progress, and outline our future direction.

FCC is committed to promoting bilingualism and official languages. As a Crown corporation, it has a duty to demonstrate leadership in this regard. Within the organization, we use the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages' Official Languages Maturity Model as a guide. In 2021, FCC conducted an organizational assessment based on this maturity model, resulting in a three-year strategy to increase bilingualism throughout the organization. The pillars of this strategy are attracting and developing bilingual talent, embedding bilingualism in the workplace, and leading by example. As part of this strategy, FCC has made several process improvements to refine its hiring practices for bilingual positions.

The hybrid work environment resulting from the COVID‑19 pandemic has encouraged nationwide job searches, enabling us to find the right talent, with the right experience, to fill bilingual positions. Hiring bilingual candidates remains a challenge, however, hence the importance of having a robust in‑house training program.

Today, 14% of the positions at FCC are designated bilingual. FCC uses the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages' “Tool for the linguistic identification of positions” to guide language designation of key positions. Currently, 80% of the positions in our executive management team are designated bilingual. Of those, 75% meet bilingual requirements and another 12.5% are taking second language training. Among our employees who serve the public, 38% are bilingual.

Since 2021, the number of employees enrolled in French-language training has quadrupled, and I'm happy to report that FCC's English-speaking senior management is increasingly interested in this training. Forty-seven per cent of employees taking French-language training are in management positions. Of these, 58% are at a beginner level, demonstrating the renewed interest in learning the French language.

This year in particular, we've observed a noticeable change throughout the organization. I also hold the title of FCC official languages champion, and prioritize the use of both official languages in meetings and communications. So our translation team has been very busy.

We had the pleasure of sharing some of FCC's initiatives at the official languages best practices forum in Ottawa this year, including FCC's bilingual meeting strategy and bilingual circle coaching initiative.

In 2023-24, with the intention of finding practical tools that encourage bilingualism, we added a new technology called Kudo to allow simultaneous interpretation in Microsoft Teams. As a result, our official languages team supported over 40 bilingual meetings, including three all-employee town halls. Multilingual teams participating together make an important contribution to our diversity and inclusion.

We also saw 13 leaders participate in bilingual coaching circles accompanied by a language coach and a bilingual HR business partner. These circles exist to increase oral fluency and linguistic security in on-the-job second language use.

As a result of this change in visibility, we're seeing increased awareness and a desire for engagement, and we're seeing French-speaking employees feeling more comfortable communicating in their first language. We've also observed that English-speaking employees are increasingly venturing to communicate in French. They use it more often and make presentations in their second language. It's a process, and there's more to come. Also, as a francophone, this journey is of personal importance to me, and I'm pleased with FCC's efforts over the past three years to increase bilingualism within the organization.

Thank you for the time you've given me this afternoon, and I look forward to answering your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Hendricks.

Ms. Cassie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Angela Cassie, President, Société de la francophonie manitobaine]

Good afternoon. I would first like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today.

My name is Angela Cassie and I am the president of the Société de la francophonie manitobaine, the SFM. I'm also a former federal public servant.

As you know, the SFM is the voice of Manitoba's French-speaking community, in all its diversity.

I'd like to present a few ideas today on two major themes, namely the impact of unilingual senior public servants on official language minority communities, OLMCs, and finding structural solutions to foster official bilingualism.

The issue at hand is of paramount importance to our community. The bilingual capacity of senior public servants is not just a matter of spoken language, but also of understanding the unique challenges our communities face on a daily basis. This has a real impact on decision-making, including the funding of organizations that support our OLMCs, as well as the provision of vital public services, among others.

All too often, unconscious prejudices trample the rights and interests of francophones. Taken together, these prejudices create a culture of laxity and indifference to our needs. We see this with the RCMP, among others, which fails to meet its bilingual obligations, despite the essential service it provides.

We also find it very worrying that managers can make decisions about the language requirements of a position without asking for, or simply ignoring, the advice of specialist official languages staff. Our community and our francophone communities deserve robust processes to ensure representativeness of the Canadian population, as well as fair and equitable treatment.

It goes without saying that the SFM supports the recommendations put forward by the Commissioner of Official Languages, which address the sources of the problem. This includes structural investments in our French education continuum to strengthen francophone labour pools. It also includes training for managers, aimed at clarifying the intent of Section 91 of the Official Languages Act, as Official Languages Commissioner Théberge emphasized in his address to this committee a few weeks ago.

In 2024, the approach based on mere compliance must be a practice of the past. What we need now is a values-based approach and a public service that is proud of and able to offer service of equal quality in both of the country's official languages. Managers who capture and embody these values will, we believe, find ways to attract, recruit and develop more bilingual senior public servants.

So I'll stop here. Thank you for your attention and for the opportunity to present our perspective today. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Cassie.

For the first round of questions, each political party will have six minutes for questions and answers.

The Conservative Party always starts first. So it's up to Mr. Dalton, who hails from western Canada, to speak for six minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for their comments and statements.

Ms. Hendricks, how are the senior officials of your organization, Farm Credit Canada, distributed across the country? Are they concentrated in Ontario? Are they spread across the country? Do they live in Alberta and Saskatchewan, or elsewhere in Canada? Are they originally from these places?

[Justine Hendricks]

Thank you for your question.

You ask how FCC managers and employees are distributed. We have 103 branches across the country, concentrated by region. About half of our 2,500 employees are in Regina, and the rest are spread across Canada. These employees include managers. We've noticed in the past that the strength of employees spread across Canada is mainly in customer service positions. Employees often remain in their communities. You may also be aware that, because FCC focuses on the agriculture and agri-food industry, our branches are often located in rural communities. That's where we find our people.

The context of the COVID‑19 pandemic also gave us a better understanding of hybrid work. As a result, FCC has been fortunate to offer management positions outside our head office, not just in Regina. In the past, most management positions, beyond those that would have been in the regions, were in Regina. However, since the COVID‑19 pandemic, the trend has changed a little. It's allowed us to attract bilingual employees, because finding bilingual employees locally had become a challenge.

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

Thank you.

Is it Treasury Board that gives the directives for language training for public servants? Where do the directives come from?

[Justine Hendricks]

We have certain policies at FCC. We also rely on policies from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages to guide us, so we know how to develop internal processes, organize courses, and evaluate positions. We use the tools provided by the Office of the Commissioner to help us determine whether a position should be bilingual or not.

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

That's good. I see you seem to be making a great effort.

It's easy to lose your French language skills. Do you offer language training on an ongoing basis? Do you require public servants to take it? How does it work?

[Justine Hendricks]

It depends on whether a position is designated as bilingual or not. In terms of training programs offered to employees, we will give priority to those in bilingual positions, especially if the manager in that position needs to improve his or her knowledge of spoken or written French. We can offer courses. It can be an online course. We have dedicated teachers. We also have concentrated training courses in which a person could go and experience French immersion for a few months to accelerate their learning of the language.

We'll then apply various methods, but first and foremost, we start by looking at positions whose incumbents are in contact with customers, especially French-speaking customers. For the past two years, we've been evaluating each position to determine whether or not it should be bilingual. It is at that point that we decide on the recruitment process and the criteria we will consider when taking different candidates into account.

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

What resources do you use? Are they resources you create yourself or resources you take from the government? Where do you get these resources?

[Justine Hendricks]

If I understand correctly, you are talking about resources to support employees.

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

I'm talking about resources to support employees and for teaching.

[Justine Hendricks]

We have a combination of resources. We have some in‑house teachers. If we do an immersion program, for example, we have a partnership with external resources. Because FCC is a Crown corporation, we don't use the services of the public service of Canada. We're independent in that respect. We have online resources, in‑house teachers, as well as external partnerships, depending on candidates' needs. We also mentioned our participation in the Best Practices Forum on Official Languages. For example, for an employee who suffers from dyslexia, we will instead retain private sector services to support and help them learn the language.

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

Thank you very much.

Ms. Cassie, is the francophone community in Manitoba growing or has it shrunk over time? How is it doing? I know there's a linguistic heritage in St. Boniface, Beauséjour and all the places where there are francophones. Are we winning the battle?

[Angela Cassie]

Thank you for the question.

It's always a battle, but we work very hard to ensure the sustainability of our community. Today's growth is more due to immigration. So that's a very important element for us. We have several bilingual municipalities, as well as a francophone school division, not to mention the Université de Saint‑Boniface. So, it's not just a historical community, it's a very vibrant and dynamic community...

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Please conclude quickly.

[Angela Cassie]

... and I'd like to add that there are a lot of people who are enrolled in immersion programs, which contributes to the vitality of the community.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Koutrakis, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being with us this afternoon. Welcome.

Ms. Hendricks, you mentioned that 75% of your employees were bilingual, if I understood correctly, and that 12.5% were taking second-language courses. What about the remaining 12.5%?

[Justine Hendricks]

Thank you for the question.

What I indicated was that 80% of our senior managers are in designated bilingual positions, and of those, 75% meet the bilingual criteria and 12.5% are currently taking courses. These are not all Farm Credit Canada employees. Fourteen per cent of all our positions are designated bilingual.