Backgrounder: Performance report card
In Canada, nearly 200 federal institutions are subject to the Official Languages Act. Each year, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL) evaluates a selection of these institutions to identify strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of the Act. This year, none of the 37 institutions obtained an overall “exemplary” grade; however, none received a grade of “very poor” either. Sixteen institutions had good results, sixteen had fair results and five performed poorly.
Management of the Official Languages Program
- Federal institutions’ commitments to official languages are now more apparent in strategic documents such as reports on plans and priorities, departmental performance reports and business plans. The challenge for many institutions is to now pass from plans to actual results.
Service to the public
- Data regarding service to the public show not only a lack of progress but, in some cases, a deterioration of performance. Several institutions lack policies or guidelines that inform employees of senior management’s commitment to promoting official languages. There is also a significant lack of monitoring of bilingual service delivery in institutions. More accountability is needed from institutions in this area.
- Results for active offer by staff, a legal obligation, remain unacceptable. While employees made an active offer of service only 24% of the time in 2005–2006, this figure plunged to 13% this year. In addition, there was no active offer in person made by 10 out of the 37 institutions evaluated. It is clear that active offer of service in English and French is not part of the service culture. The Commissioner issued a recommendation to all deputy heads of federal institutions to correct this long-standing problem. Service Canada, which should be exemplary in terms of service to the public, did not perform well in this area. On the other hand, the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation received a perfect score for service in person and over the telephone.
- As in previous years, service in person is adequate in the minority language three times out of four (75%). The Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport Authority did not provide adequate service on any occasion. However, two institutions made consistent progress in this area over the last three years: Environment Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
- Although 90% of employees responsible for providing service to the public in both official languages meet the language requirements of their positions, three institutions must improve dramatically in this area. These are the Canadian Forces (40%), the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Authority (63%) and Canada Post (72%).
- Visual active offer, indicating to customers that service is offered in both languages, is lacking mostly at the Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport Authority, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada, and CBC/Radio-Canada. By contrast, the National Capital Commission and the National Film Board received an exemplary grade in this category.
Language of Work
- Several institutions have taken concrete measures to enhance the use of both languages in the workplace. Also, the overall number of senior managers who satisfy the language requirements of their positions has increased: more than 90% of senior managers now meet their language requirements, although the Public Health Agency of Canada and Western Economic Diversification are lagging behind.
- While the bilingual capacity of supervisors (excluding senior management) is generally between 85% and 90%, three institutions have difficulty supervising their employees in the language of their choice: the Canadian Forces (33%), the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and Canada Post Corporation (both at 58%).
- There has been an overall increase in the level of satisfaction among Francophones working in bilingual regions. Employees were most satisfied (97%) at Canada Economic Development for the Regions of Quebec and least satisfied (39%) in bilingual units in the Canadian Forces. Among Anglophones in Quebec, only 43% of Correctional Service Canada employees and 51% of Health Canada employees in bilingual regions were satisfied.
Equitable Participation
- Institutions maintained very good results for equitable participation. However, participation of Anglophones in Quebec remains a challenge for certain institutions, including Parks Canada (Anglophone participation of 1.3%) and Canada Economic Development for the Regions of Quebec (Anglophone participation of 1.8%).
Advancement of English and French
- While many institutions have not yet started examining the impact of their policies and programs on official language minority communities, we found that most of them have taken several initiatives to advance English and French (Part VII of the Act). On the national level, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Statistics Canada stand out for their leadership in the implementation of Part VII and should serve as a source of inspiration to other departments. These institutions received an “exemplary” rating for taking into account both the development of official language minority communities and the promotion of linguistic duality in their strategic planning and the development of their policies and programs.
REGIONAL RESULTS FOR SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC 2006–2007
| * | Results are representative of the performance of federal institutions in the capital city only. |
| ** | Excludes the National Capital Region. |
| *** | These numbers do not include observations made: • On the telephone to assessed institutions’ call centres across the country • On VIA Rail routes |
