Official Languages committee  We checked on whether or not any such instructions had been given to employees recently. It is possible that someone did that at some point in time, but it in no way reflects Service Canada policy. Employees who are able to speak a second language obviously have the right to do so, out of courtesy to the employees.

Official Languages committee  All 1-800 O-Canada employees are bilingual.

Official Languages committee  That's correct.

Official Languages committee  I am not aware of any change in the front-line service offered at the Service Canada centre Trois-Rivières. Situations may arise, not as concerns the service itself, but perhaps with regard to the processing of some of our programs, such as Employment-Insurance or the Canada Pension Plan.

Official Languages committee  Unfortunately, the most recent quantitative data we have is from 2008. That was the last time we conducted a survey of the Public Service. Since then, we have made considerable efforts to increase the comfort level, if I may use that term, of employees working in their own language.

Official Languages committee  I will answer the first part of your question and then I will ask Ms. Rallis to answer the second part. This is indeed a matter of human resources staffing, qualifications, etc. Often, employees are in certain positions and their skill level changes further to an evaluation. Evaluations must be conducted every five years.

Official Languages committee  ...and, to answer your question, we did consult the francophone communities in Nova Scotia about this change.

Official Languages committee  In our regional offices, there are many exchanges with official language minority communities. However, we fully agree with the commissioner's perception that the approach is not particularly structured or coordinated and that we must do better to ensure more effective monitoring of our communications.

Official Languages committee  At the end of this month, there will be a change in the services offered in certain community offices located in Newfoundland and Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Until now, services were delivered by third parties. We had contracts with certain organizations in these communities and information on the programs and services offered by the Government of Canada was provided in these offices.

Official Languages committee  We have a 1-800 O-Canada call centre, located here in Ottawa, but we also have several telephone services for specific programs, such as Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, the...

Official Languages committee  Yes, they are all located in Canada.

Official Languages committee  The 1-800 O-Canada service is bilingual.

Official Languages committee  No. Under our current organization, the positions that are designated bilingual are the ones that we have. In our action plan, we committed to reviewing the guidelines for the establishment of bilingual positions by 2013.

Official Languages committee  We have 3,745 bilingual positions and the employees who fill them meet 94% of the staffing requirements.

Official Languages committee  The action plan contains our response to the commissioner and the commitments we have made. We incorporated all of these components into a Service Canada action plan.