Official Languages committee  My answer is yes, but I would make two other small comments. I follow up on the complaints fairly religiously. Either last year or this year, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages received only one complaint, testifying to the fact that not everyone who contacts the department is served inadequately.

Official Languages committee  That is a...

Official Languages committee  Nevertheless, I know that the opposite is also true. If we had received 50 complaints, things would not be very pleasant today. As I told you, by sharing the transcript of my appearance today with the people who provide service to the public, this will make managers, assistant deputy managers and all of the employees aware of how important it is to comply with the legislation.

Official Languages committee  In relative terms, few of our clients are part of the general public. My mother would not call the Department of Industry.

Official Languages committee  She may do so if she wants to speak to me, but she is not part of the clientele served by the department. She would call Passport Canada. Of the 6,000 employees in the department, between 1,000 to 1,200 work on patents. So we communicate with a very specialized clientele. The same thing applies to people who inspect antennas, to determine whether or not there has been a violation because someone has installed an illegal antenna.

Official Languages committee  We have not had any problems. Indeed, a bill aimed at improving this act has just been approved by the Governor General. The matter has been studied by numerous parliamentary committees, including a Senate committee, and this type of problem has never been raised.

Official Languages committee  It is written in the client's language. We have forms enabling us to verify that the gas pump indicates the quantity of litres that has really been pumped.

Official Languages committee  I have noted your question about the way that we conduct our inspections and I will report on the matter to the clerk. In all honesty, I do not know how the work is done.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  Maybe one of my two colleagues knows, and they can contribute. One fact I do know is that we have 3,400 employees who are occupying bilingual jobs. Of those, 2,400 have some contact with the public. The other 1,000 tend to be focused on either supervisory jobs where they have to deal up the food chain of decision making, or are providing corporate services, which would be in HR.

Official Languages committee  We have a multiplicity of regional designs. Not everything is five regions or ten provinces. The office of--

Official Languages committee  We have one.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  As I was saying to Mrs. Boucher, there are a certain number of things that we can do. We will start by cleaning up the office list so that it is perfectly clear and transparent because some of these offices do not really provide services to the public. If someone from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages were to knock on the office door, he or she may find that the person inside is unilingual, but that should not pose a problem because this employee is not there to provide service to the public.