Official Languages committee  Can Ms. Saikaley answer that?

Official Languages committee  I will refer to the comments that were made in the Speech from the Throne, which talks about the state of French in the Canadian context of North America. I think that the federal government's findings should lead to a reflection on what should be done to ensure the sustainability of French across the country.

Official Languages committee  With respect to the budget of the Office of the Commissioner, its mandate must be considered. As I said earlier, it would be interesting to have additional resources for research, studies and audits. However, the Office of the Commissioner remains a small organization. Our role is not to replace others.

Official Languages committee  That's an excellent question. We have data with respect to that question, and we have shared the data with a number of institutions. I've met with many members of the English-speaking minority in Quebec, and there is an outdated perception of what the community is about. I've met researchers who deal with single-income families in NDG, for example, who basically do not at all look like what the perception is.

Official Languages committee  When I look at the English-speaking minority in Quebec, what I see today is what I call “a young minority”. It's a minority that does not have in place a lot of the social infrastructure that similar communities would have outside of Quebec. For example, youth organizations or the organizations dealing with seniors don't necessarily have the research capacity within these organizations to put forward their case.

Official Languages committee  What I would say with respect to any language is that it's more than the workplace, more than the schools. You live your life in a linguistic environment. There are many factors that impact that linguistic environment. Which ones can you actually control, and which ones can you not control?

Official Languages committee  We have not looked into that issue to date for the simple reason that we are sticking to our mandate. We have, however, begun to reflect on the impact of the increase in complaints. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, if we spend more time on investigations, we will spend less time on monitoring, for example.

Official Languages committee  Alberta and British Columbia are two provinces with a growing number of official language minority communities. Obviously, we would like to have more resources to serve very large territories, but we operate based on identified needs. We're able to meet the needs of the communities, but if, as a result of our analyses, we see that the needs are growing, we may have to allocate more resources to them.

Official Languages committee  That would be quite difficult to achieve using a maturity model that does not look at individuals, but at systems and disciplines within an organization. It looks at human resources departments, for example. We have not thought about that, but I cannot see how that kind of model could lead to that type of conclusion.

Official Languages committee  Yes, that's correct.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Arseneault. The compliance mechanism is part of the third pillar of a strict law. Since our office was created, we have received 54,000 complaints, and we have dealt with them with varying degrees of success. When it comes to compliance mechanisms, it's important to remember that the Commissioner has mostly investigative powers, and quite broad ones at that.

Official Languages committee  According to Commissioner Huws, Wales has a somewhat hybrid model that allowed her to act both as ombudsman and commissioner, with all the powers that go with it. It's important to always distinguish between the role of an ombudsman and that of a commissioner, who must remain independent and impartial.

Official Languages committee  Sure. We're not doing a lot of schools right now, but we can give you some past records.

Official Languages committee  I will ask Ms. Saikaley to tell us which is the oldest. I don't know that specific complaint. I imagine it is a complaint.

Official Languages committee  As I mentioned earlier, we stepped in to work with some institutions from the outset and we are seeing some improvement. However, we currently don't have the structures we need in place to prevent this kind of situation from reoccurring. Emergency preparedness organizations are not ready.