OCOL - Appendix E: Methodology for collecting data on language of work

Appendix E: Methodology for collecting data on language of work

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For the 2008–2009 report card exercise, the Commissioner of Official Languages surveyed 14 “separate employer” institutions¹ in order to assess their employees’ satisfaction with regard to language of work.

More specifically, the survey assessed employees’ degree of satisfaction in response to the following five questions:

The material and tools provided for my work, including software and other automated tools, are available in the official language of my choice.
When I prepare written materials, including electronic mail, I feel free to use the official language of my choice.
When I communicate with my immediate supervisor, I feel free to use the official language of my choice.
During meetings in my work unit, I feel free to use the official language of my choice.
The training offered by my work unit is in the official language of my choice.

The survey questionnaire was sent to Francophone employees in designated bilingual regions in Ontario,² the National Capital Region and New Brunswick, as well as Anglophone employees in designated bilingual regions in Quebec.³

Statistics Canada administered the survey in 11 of the 14 selected institutions. For its part, the Canada Public Service Agency surveyed employees in the three other targeted institutions by inserting the five questions in the 2008 Public Service Employee Survey. All results were sent directly to Statistics Canada, for compilation.

The following institutions were surveyed by Statistics Canada:

Business Development Bank of Canada
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Canada Post
Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation
CBC/Radio-Canada
National Arts Centre
National Film Board
NAV CANADA
Parks Canada
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
VIA Rail

The following institutions were surveyed by the Canada Public Service Agency:

Canada Revenue Agency
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
National Capital Commission

The results obtained by the separate employers in their report cards, with regard to language of work, are presented in Tables 5 and 6.

The report cards of the institutions that were examined are available on the Office of the Commissioner’s Web site.

Table 5 - Degree of satisfaction of anglophone and francophone federal employees in minority settings with regard to the use of their language in the workplace
	Proportion of Francophones satisfied (Rating in %)	Proportion of Anglophones satisfied (Rating in %)
Tools	80.46	82.16
Supervision	66.29	80.40
Training	69.18	64.20
Writing	61.68	75.14
Meetings	68.39	72.45
Overall rating	69.20	74.87

Table 6 - Language of work survey results
	Satisfaction Level Among Francophones (NCR, NB, ON) (Rating in %)	Satisfaction Level Among Anglophones (Qc) (Rating in %)
Business Development Bank of Canada	86.5	93.7
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation	69.9	^**
Canada Post	71.6	64.8
Canada Revenue Agency	68.2	69.4
Canadian Food Inspection Agency	69.0	54.0
Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation	84.2	N/A
CBC/Radio-Canada	86.0	86.6
National Arts Centre^*	81.5	N/A
National Capital Commission^*	82.4	N/A
National Film Board	^**	88.8
NAV CANADA	44.6	67.9
Parks Canada	74.7	^**
Royal Canadian Mounted Police	64.6	67.7
VIA Rail	56.9	89.7
Overall Rating	69.2	74.9

* Anglophone satisfaction rates could not be measured because the institution does not have offices in Quebec.
** Data omitted due to the low number of respondents.

Notes

1. The language-of-work survey was administered in only 14 of the 15 institutions evaluated this year for the report card exercise. The employees of the Canadian Tourism Commission were not surveyed because their numbers are too small to obtain valid results.

2. The bilingual region of Eastern Ontario and the bilingual region of Northern Ontario.

3. The bilingual region of Montréal as well as the bilingual regions of parts of the Eastern Townships and the Gaspé Peninsula.

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