Official Languages committee  The first action under our action plan is to look into things. I believe the data that were available for the commissioner's exercise are based solely on the public service employee survey. However, we have to try to demystify this: not to be comfortable doing it as opposed to th

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. In the field, it's like at our headquarters: there are two aspects. First, there is the aspect of knowing whether people meet the linguistic profile. Does the supervisor have the linguistic profile? I believe that, for the majority, we're nevertheless quite well off i

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, this question is a leadership issue. As to whether CBSA employees feel they can't write to the president in the language of their choice, that's false. It's the same thing for my executive committee and my directors general, and so on.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. The answer to your question is that I realize that it's at the basic level; it's the first level; it's the second level. The action plan for using the employee's language of choice will address those first levels in order to demystify that, to deconstruct the myth rel

Official Languages committee  I believe so. I have no reason to believe the contrary. We have a training budget. We're already spending about $2 million a year. The exercise we conducted this year consisted in examining our entire training budget. So I'll have the opportunity to reassess the matter to determi

Official Languages committee  I don't personally remember receiving any complaints from Cornwall.

Official Languages committee  That's a good question. Where we have the most challenges—we could say that this is a problem—is at Lansdowne: it starts there. In fact, we don't have any problems at Prescott or Cornwall. It has to be said that Prescott, Cornwall and Lansdowne are designated bilingual crossings.

Official Languages committee  Historically in our recruitment process, the agency has recruited locally. That means that Border Services Agency officers who work in Cornwall mostly come from Cornwall, Prescott and so on. We don't have a big mobility budget. People aren't usually that interested in moving.

Official Languages committee  We certainly do. I think the challenge for these sorts of discussions is that we legitimately on areas where we have complaints, where we have problems. Mr. Sabourin talked about the volume. We will get 230,000 passengers today. I get a lot of positive feedback about the service

Official Languages committee  Well, if you do the average, it will probably be zero, because we had 35 last year.

Official Languages committee  I haven't received any specific instructions, except with regard to my role as president—because we belong to the public service. As deputy head, I'm responsible for managing this file.

Official Languages committee  First, I started occupying my position on November 15. The directive comes from the deputy head. I don't have any specific directives, except that it must be understood that we are responsible for the administration of a number of acts. Secondly, all our senior executives have m

Official Languages committee  If the positions are bilingual, yes, we advertise for bilingual people. We hire people on an imperative basis; their applications have to be consistent with the job profile.

Official Languages committee  There is nevertheless that flexibility, but staffing is done regionally, and the directors general fill the positions based on needs.

Official Languages committee  That's the case.