Ottawa, April 23, 2002
Notes for a presentation to the Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Honorable Members,
Consideration of the Estimates is a tradition I consider worthwhile; this exercise allows me to take stock of our activities and to ensure that our dialogue is ongoing.
First of all, I want to thank you for your commitment, and I want to highlight the important work you have accomplished in recent months. Your reports on the broadcasting of the debates of the House of Commons in both official languages by the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), and on the language situation at Air Canada, as well as your consultations with target groups, should further the progress of the Official Languages Program. Everything your Committee does is an indication of your desire to advance linguistic duality in our evolving society -one that, we hope, is a good example internationally.
Ensuring full recognition of linguistic duality and especially, as Senator Beaudoin so eloquently stated yesterday, the equality of status of English and French in Canadian society, is a significant challenge. Meeting this challenge means that we must work with a great many stakeholders. Changes in society, many of them caused by changes in technology, are altering established practices; this paradigm is particularly applicable to the workings of government. Greater pressures are being brought to bear on what we have come to call "cybergovernments". In our knowledge based era, change is fast-paced and demands that we continuously learn new things. We need to know how to manage information, adapt to change, anticipate needs, and spot new trends.
I realize that integrating the Official Languages Program calls for firm, sustained commitment in government operations at all levels. I also acknowledge the significant efforts that have been made horizontally since the publication of my first Annual Report. I shall try to outline the current situation for you in this presentation.
Over the past decade, government operations have been overhauled and supported by complex agreements. Given this new context, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages must move quickly and acquire the knowledge it needs to influence all these new organizations, as early as possible, bearing in mind that they operate differently than do federal departments and Crown corporations. I also note that some programs have been entrusted to outside parties, a practice that requires us to set up effective networks and pay ongoing attention to changes in the way government works. Like the Auditor General of Canada, I believe that we must introduce standard governance frameworks specifically for official languages that will ensure accountability to Parliament.
Preserving language rights is urgent, and to do it we need the right tools. In a structured and consistent manner, my Office must assess the repercussions of draft legislation, programs and policies in all fields, such as the administration of justice in both official languages, Government On-Line, immigration, modernization of human resources management, air transportation, health and education, to name just a few examples. To this end, we must also expand our research capacity. We need to create a section of auditors responsible for conducting horizontal investigations and producing special studies.
For example, as I explained yesterday, we intervened very early during the legislative process of renewing the Immigration Act, and the Legislative Committee responsible for considering that bill took our proposed amendments into account. The study on immigration I recently published also highlighted the importance of this issue. As well, we intervened during consideration of the bill setting out the language obligations of Air Canada subsidiaries.
Still on the subject of active vigilance, in February 2002 I appeared before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs to support Senator Gauthier's initiative, Bill S-32, the purpose of which is to clarify the scope of Part VII of the Official Languages Act. I would also like to take this opportunity today to tell the members of the Committee that I support any amendment that would clarify Part VII and remove any ambiguity about the federal government's obligations as to the full implementation of the two objectives of Part VII. I also addressed the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in order to ensure that all components of the broadcasting system adequately reflect linguistic duality.
Where human rights and especially language rights are concerned, our dialogue was greatly enriched at the recent celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Constitutional experts are unanimous that the decisions in Beaulac and Arsenault Cameron have given meaning to these language rights by clarifying and specifying governments' obligations. Over the past few months, I have intervened in four cases, on various issues and at different levels of the judicial system. Increasingly often, my Office's Legal Services Directorate is called upon to provide legal opinions, not only internally as part of complex investigations, but also on the increasing number of questions before the courts related to the status of English and French in Canadian society.
My consultations with senior federal officials confirmed a need to diversify our approach to federal institutions. It became clear to me that providing diagnoses is not enough, but that we also need to share our positive experiences and ensure that the measures we propose provide effective remedies to shortcomings and produce sustainable results. I have therefore set up within my Office a Quality and Liaison Division, which is responsible for initiating dialogue outside the investigations process. Now, my staff must not only identify the need for change within institutions, but also work to facilitate that change.
We have also defined performance indicators, aimed at improving the work method used by our investigators to identify the sources of problems and the best ways to eliminate them. By means of this improved method, we want to use complaints as tools for change and apply techniques that will allow decision-makers and employees to do a better job of taking charge and assuming responsibility. Our investigators are trained to use a range of methods, but not to accept compromises where language rights and obligations are at stake.
A round table discussion group at the Canadian Centre for Management Development (CCMD) will soon provide me with an opportunity to deliver the messages contained in our study entitled Time for a Change in Culture. As well, the CCMD is soon to present the results of a special study, on the language of work in the public service and particularly executives' responsibility.
In the many presentations I have made to the management committees of federal institutions, I have emphasized the need for a stronger language audit function, and for effective performance indicators for assessing implementation of Part VII of the Official Languages Act. I have also indicated how important complaints are as early indicators of systemic problems. These meetings have been an opportunity for me to tell people about the diversity of our services and methods, as well as to learn more about the specific contexts within with each institution operates.
Along the same lines, I agreed to chair the new Canadian Ombudsman Forum, and to be joint vice chair of the board of directors of the Association des ombudsmans et médiateurs de la Francophonie. While giving me an opportunity to promote the Office and especially the role of ombudsman within a democratic regime, these are valuable forums for discussion and they provide me with much food for thought.
Obviously, progress toward genuine equality of status of English and French depends on the full development of our official language communities and, ultimately, on a deep understanding by the government and its provincial partners of their respective, complementary obligations in this field. We hope that the action plan soon to be tabled by Minister Dion on behalf of the government will give concrete expression to its renewed commitment. In this regard, having intervened on several occasions on the issue of bilingualism in Ottawa, I am delighted to see that the federal government has provided $2.5 million in funding.
Where promoting the Official Languages Program with the general public is concerned, I have expanded the number of meetings I have held in all parts of Canada, and I continue to talk regularly with representatives of the minority and majority communities. We have published a book on the first 30 years of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, and updated a range of publications. As part of national and regional fairs and exhibitions, employees of the Office have staffed booths at a number of events. We have made an effort to inform the public as much as possible about official languages through our ever-increasing presence in the media. I also intervene regularly in the press across the country through letters to the editor to correct any false perceptions about the Official Languages Program.
This brief presentation gives you an idea of the increasing number of interventions we shall undertake. In fact, since language is an integral part of nearly every activity in Canadian society, it is hardly surprising that other parliamentary committees, in addition to your own, want to take advantage of my Office's expertise. As a result, the Office needs additional resources if it is to be able to assist Parliament and the government in fulfilling their commitment to the full recognition of English and French.
In recent months, highly significant issues have been debated on Parliament Hill. We must pursue our efforts to reconcile commitments under the Charter and those under Part VII of the Official Languages Act, and to address the other important and challenging issues that call for effective follow-up mechanisms in assessing the extent of implementation of our shared recommendations.
I consider it my duty to provide greater support for the work of Parliament, so that the legislation it passes furthers progress toward genuine equality of English and French. If we are to give parliamentarians the support they need, the time has come to offer them an effective parliamentary liaison service.
In conclusion, to ensure that Canadians' language rights are truly recognized and respected, an extensive series of measures must be taken; and, in order to do that job well, I must be even more actively present with majority and minority groups, institutions, the media, the public, governments, the provincial legislatures, and Parliament.
Last year, in its Fourth Report, your Committee asked the government to increase funding for the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages; identified needs called for $6 million. An initial request for $1 million, that was added to the Office's budget base, was approved last year. Non recurring funding of $1.1 million, to allow us to renew our technological platform in anticipation of Government On-Line and to design communication products, was approved as well.
In order to complete our strategic turnaround, we are putting the final touches on a second submission requesting additional resources. We need to focus our efforts on three clearly-defined tasks:
- developing our knowledge of the constantly changing situation, by gathering relevant data, conducting research, and producing reports on the language situation in institutions;
- encouraging the adoption by federal institutions of an integrated strategic approach to include official languages as part of their management methods, programs and services;
- exercising persuasion, so as to influence stakeholders positively and encourage them to implement the provisions of the Official Languages Act.
Additional resources, then, are vital if we are to improve parliamentary relations, provide liaison with the communities, conduct research and analysis in the social and legal fields, and set up an auditing function. We are confident that this second submission will be favourably received this year.
In closing, I would simply like to thank you for your consistent support. In the many-faceted follow-up that the Air Canada case and Minister Dion's action plan will require (to name only those two interventions), you may rely on my full co-operation.
