The Government of Canada strongly supports the rights of francophones outside Quebec to get service in their own language, where there is a population that needs it.
When Human Resources Development Canada, HRDC, began to consolidate its offices in 1997, it consulted with the Vancouver community to see where and how they would like the department to set up a bilingual office.
A review of the most appropriate location for the provision of bilingual services was also needed. A town hall meeting was held in French to provide an opportunity for the francophone community to provide input on service consolidation plans and especially which office shold be responsible for providing bilingual services. Invitations were extended to all francophone associations in the greater Vancouver area and efforts were made to ensure participants were representatives of all HRDC's client groups. The Sinclair office's bilingual staff were also invited. Due to the length of time that has elapsed since the meeting was held, it is not known whether staf from the Sinclair office were in attendance. However, all participants attending the town hall meeting expressed the preference that bilingual services should be provided in a full service Human Resources Centre of Canada, HRCC, and their choice was HRCC Vancouver. Also, a study of the demographics of the francophone population clearly showed that the majority of francophones were living in the HRCC Vancouver area.
Based on the process outlined above, bilingual service was trasferred to HRCC Vancouver in October 1997. Advertisements were placed in the local French paper and on radio station CBUF-FM to communicate where bilingual service was available. A letter was also sent to all francophone clients to inform them of this move.
There are currently 20 points of service designated as bilingual service sites in British Columbia. Nine of these are in Vancouver. Of the nine, there is only one HRCC which is fully bilingual. Along with the one bilingual HRCC in Vancouver, the infocentres, Labour Canada, income security and regional offices are designated bilingual.
In the case of the Sinclair office, even though the office is designated unilingual English, employees are encouraged by management to respond in the language of the client when the need arises. This ensures that quality services are offered to all clients. It is HRDC's policy to designate bilingual positions in unilingual offices if the work entails services that are to be provided in both languages. This policy is in accordance with official languages regulations. In the incident mentioned by Radio Canada, this policy was regrettably not followed.
Question No. 181—