Status of Women committee  That is not us. I should clarify that. The officers of Parliament work together. There has been a pilot project on this for three years now. This is a parliamentary panel made up of members of Parliament from all parties. It reviews the requests for additional funding put forward by the officers of Parliament.

Status of Women committee  We are in the initial stages of this exercise; it is still a pilot project. At the moment, Treasury Board is involved in the panel to provide expertise and to do the necessary analytical work. Making it clear that our main connection should be to parliamentarians rather than to the executive and government, is an important first step.

Status of Women committee  If I may, Madam Chair, I want to be very clear. I don't want to give you advice as to what you should do in terms of gender-based analysis because I simply don't know the field well enough. What I can do is talk about the independence of the role of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

Status of Women committee  Let me preface my remarks by saying that I don't pretend to know very much about the field of gender-based analysis and I hesitate to embark on a recommendation. Aside from the brief reading of some of the transcripts of the witnesses who appeared before you.... I think that whatever recommendation you make has to take into account your understanding of the field, which I don't have.

Status of Women committee  That is in fact what happened after the 1995 budget cutbacks. We were not exempted from them. I say "we", but I was not in this position at the time. The office was subject to this decision made by the government. My predecessor, Dyane Adam, tried very hard to persuade the government that one of the effects of these cutbacks would be felt in minority communities in the area of official languages and in all other aspects having to do with official languages.

Status of Women committee  Yes, on September 25, 2006, when the government announced its budget cuts, we received a total of 118 complaints. The bulk of those complaints related to the abolition of the court challenges program--or, I should say, the suspension of the funding for the court challenges program.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, bonjour. It's a great pleasure for me to appear before you to explain my role. Before beginning my statement, I just wanted to stress how our office is available to parliamentarians who seek more information about official languages.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, my answer will also cover some aspects of the questions put by Mr. Nadeau, who mentioned some rather sad cases involving the RCMP. I think there is some common ground in the remarks by both members. I will say two things. First of all, the aspect that is missing in both of these incidents is the important value underlying all involvement by the Office of the Commissioner and which is at the basis of the act itself.

Official Languages committee  I did indeed raise that question in the last annual report, and I expressed exactly the same concerns about a potential conflict of interest and the danger of a directive coming from an office next door having less influence than a directive from above. In Ottawa, a message from the Privy Council has more influence than a message coming horizontally from another department.

Official Languages committee  I would like to highlight two aspects in response to the member's question. What struck me in the case of Edmonton is that they conducted in-depth analysis of what would be needed to provide training in French, not only in elementary and secondary school, but from kindergarten right through the 16th year.

Official Languages committee  The member raises a very interesting question, Mr. Chairman. We've done some work on it in the past. It will be a subject that, as the next distribution approaches, we will be looking at very carefully. I would ask Catherine Scott to add something.

Official Languages committee  We will be taking a close look at the figures that were released this week. That will be part of the performance analysis we carry out in relation to the government. I will take into account the member's misgivings and his analysis of the figures. However, I hesitate to make a spontaneous analysis of such fresh figures.

Official Languages committee  No, we haven't conducted any such study. However, it is an issue which concerns me. As I said earlier this morning, intuitively, I think that there is a gap between actually being able to communicate and just passing tests.

Official Languages committee  That is precisely the message that I am sending directly to the universities. It is even more important now, because the public service is recruiting to renew itself. This is a very important time to send out the message, and I do so every time the opportunity arises. When I travel across the country, I make sure to meet with university representatives in order to pass this message on to them.

Official Languages committee  You're referring to minority community post-secondary institutions. Well, my position as commissioner has given me the opportunity to discover and observe the energy and vitality of these institutions which, often with limited resources, do extraordinary things. You referred to the Boréal College.