Questions and responses 41st Parliament, 1st session June 2, 2011, to September 13, 2013

With regard to the Summit of the Americas: (a) what is the role and what are the responsibilities of Canada regarding the official languages of the Summit and the official languages of the documents; (b) what are the official languages of the Summit; (c) what are the official languages of the documents; (d) how are the official languages of the Summit and the official languages of the documents determined; (e) does the Summit have language policies and, if so, what are they; (f) how much are Canada’s financial contributions to the Summit in the following areas, (i) total financial contribution, (ii) language, (iii) the French language, (iv) the English language, (v) translation and interpretation; (g) why are all official documents of the Summit process not available in French; and (h) why is there not a French version of the Summit website?

With regard to any funding dedicated to the promotion of Canada’s official languages that was not accounted for in the $1.1 billion dollars outlined in the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013: (a) what departments or agencies contributed to the funding of official languages programs; (b) what are the names of the programs that delivered that funding listed by department or agency; and (c) what amount of money did each of those programs spend in fiscal years (i) 2007-2008, (ii) 2008-2009, (iii) 2009-2010, (iv) 2010-2011, (v) 2011-2012, (vi) 2012-2013?

With respect to the appointment of judges to the Federal Courts, Superior Courts and similarly situated tribunals within the sphere of the federal power to appoint judges and members, between 2006 and 2012: (a) how is the language competence of candidates assessed; (b) how many unilingual Anglophone candidates were recommended by the Judicial Advisory Committee to the Justice Minister, (i) how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to the Federal Courts, (ii) in what years; (c) how many unilingual Anglophone candidates were recommended by each of the Judicial Advisory Committees in each one of the provinces and territories for appointed to the superior courts of various provinces and how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to superior courts, broken down by province and year; (d) how many unilingual Francophone candidates were recommended by the Judicial Advisory Committee to the Justice Minister, (i) how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to the Federal Courts, (ii) in what years; (e) how many unilingual Francophone candidates were recommended by each of the Judicial Advisory Committees in each one of the provinces and territories for appointment to the superior courts of various provinces and how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to superior courts, broken down by province and year; (f) how many bilingual candidates were recommended by the Judicial Advisory Committee to the federal Justice Minister and how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to the Federal Courts, broken down by year; (g) how many bilingual candidates were recommended by each of the Judicial Advisory Committees in each one of the provinces and territories for appointment to the superior courts of various provinces and how many of them were later recommended by the Minister for appointment to superior courts, broken down by province and year; (h) how many unilingual Anglophone candidates were considered for appointment to each of the federally-appointed tribunals, (i) how many of them were appointed, (ii) to what tribunals, (iii) in what years; (i) how many unilingual Francophone candidates were considered for appointment to each of the federally-appointed tribunals, (i) how many of them were appointed, (ii) to what tribunals, (iii) in what years; (j) how many bilingual candidates were considered for appointment to each of the federally-appointed tribunals, (i) how many of them were appointed, (ii) to what tribunals, (iii) in what years; (k) during this process, how high did the candidate’s competence in both official languages rank among the criteria considered by the Minister; (l) has the government put in place a process by which the language needs on the bench can be identified; (m) how are those needs addressed in the judicial appointment process; (n) how are the language needs assessed at the superior court level; (o) how are they addressed in the judicial appointment process; (p) for each judge listed, broken down by Anglophone, Francophone and bilingual judges, and by year, how many cases have been referred, heard and decided; (q) what is being done to ensure even case loads between Anglophone and Francophone judges; and (r) by what means, how often and by whom or which bodies is the case load difference between Anglophone and Francophone judges reviewed?

With regard to the Government-wide Chart of Accounts: (a) how does the Receiver General for Canada fulfill his official languages obligations; (b) how does the Treasury Board Secretariat fulfill its official languages obligations; (c) what positive measures have been taken as regards official languages; (d) are official languages integrated into the Chart and if so, how, or if not, why not; (e) how does the Chart allow for data on financial transactions to be identified, collected and reported in such a way as to fulfill the government’s official languages obligations; and (f) what are the program codes regarding official languages, and for which institutions are they used?

With regard to the use of French by Canada Border Services Agency: (a) how many officers at the various border crossings are able to work (i) only in English, broken down by border crossing, (ii) only in French, broken down by border crossing, (iii) in both official languages, broken down by border crossing; (b) what was the amount spent on French as a second language training for border services officers from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (c) what was the amount spent on English as a second language training for border services officers from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (d) how many border services officers have taken or will take French as a second language training from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; (e) how many border services officers have taken or will take English as a second language training from 2008 up to 2013, broken down by year; and (f) what proportion of border crossings have been able to provide service in French at all times (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), from 2008 to 2012, broken down by year?

With regard to the Centre of Excellence for Evaluation (CEE) of the Treasury Board Secretariat: (a) why is the 2012 Annual Report on the Health of the Evaluation Function not available online; (b) why are official languages not included in the 2011 Annual Report on the Health of the Evaluation Function; (c) how are official languages integrated into the work of the CEE; (d) does the CEE work closely with the Official Languages Centre of Excellence and, if so, how; (e) how are official languages integrated into the evaluation function as regards expenditure management in the public service as a whole; (f) why are official languages not included in the Leadership Competencies for Federal Heads of Evaluation; (g) why are official languages not included in the Policy on Evaluation; (h) how does the CEE ensure that federal institutions have access to external evaluators with official languages experience when necessary; (i) how many CEE employees work on files with an official languages component; (j) does the Framework for Professional Development for Evaluators have an official languages component and, if so, what is it; (k) why has the Audit and Evaluation Database been offline for a number of weeks, and when will it be working again; and (l) how does the CEE ensure that the tools it provides on its website take into account its official languages obligations?

With regard to the Royal Military College (RMC), for fiscal years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012: (a) what were the numbers of graduates and undergraduates; (b) what were the profiles of officer cadets who entered the RMC, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) first official language, (ii) province of origin; (c) what were the profiles of RMC officer cadets who graduated and are commissioned, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) first official language; and (d) what is the number of RMC undergraduates who have been exempted or otherwise unable to attain the established standard for bilingualism in each of the two official language groupings?

With regard to the Governor in Council appointment process for the Privy Council Office from 2005 to 2013 inclusively: (a) how many people work at the Senior Personnel and Special Projects Secretariat, and what is the language profile for each of their positions; (b) how many appointments were made; (c) what is the list of all the positions granted through Governor in Council appointments and how many positions are on the list; (d) how many of the job postings include or included language requirements, (i) how are these requirements worded, (ii) what criteria were used to determine these requirements, (iii) are the language requirements for each of these positions recorded, (iv) were the federal institutions involved consulted before the language requirements were determined, (v) was the Treasury Board Secretariat consulted regarding the drafting of these postings, (vi) was the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages consulted regarding the drafting of these postings; (e) are there guidelines for the linguistic designation of positions as regards official languages and, if so, (i) what are they, (ii) who created them, (iii) are they systematically consulted before each appointment; (f) what is the proportion of appointments for each of the provinces and territories; (g) what is the proportion of anglophones and francophones who are appointed and how is this information recorded; and (h) is the proportion of bilingual anglophones and francophones on boards of directors appointed by the Governor in Council recorded and, if so, what is it?

With regard to the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, what are the actual expenditures by department and program for fiscal years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010?

With respect to the Action Plan for Official Languages 2003-2008, what were the actual expenditures by fiscal year, department and program?

With regard to human resources at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centres of Trenton (JRCC Trenton) and Halifax (JRCC Halifax): (a) how many Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) search and rescue coordinator positions are there (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (b) how many of these positions are officially unilingual English positions (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (c) how many of the positions in (a) are officially bilingual BBB positions (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (d) how many of the positions in (a) are officially bilingual CBC positions (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (e) how many of the positions in (a) are staffed permanently (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (f) how many of the coordinators in (a) meet the BBB language requirement (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (g) of these coordinators, how many are certified to take charge of a watch (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (h) how many of the coordinators in (a) meet the CBC language requirement (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (i) of these coordinators, how many are certified to take charge of a watch (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (j) how many unilingual English-speaking coordinators are there (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (k) of these coordinators, how many are certified to take charge of a watch (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (l) what were the expected schedules for January 1, 2013, and the following 12 months, specifying the bilingual positions, unilingual positions and names of the individuals assigned according to these schedules and the language proficiency of these individuals, (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (m) how many retirements are expected over the next 12 months (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (n) what is the language requirement for CCG JRCC supervisor positions (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (o) what is the language proficiency of the incumbents of the CCG JRCC supervisor positions (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (p) how much has the government committed to date to improve the French proficiency of CCG search and rescue (SAR) operations coordinators since June 2011; (q) how many Canadian Forces (CF) air SAR coordinators work (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (r) how many of these CF air SAR coordinators are bilingual (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; (s) what is the current individual language proficiency of the CF air SAR coordinators (i) at JRCC Trenton, (ii) at JRCC Halifax; and (t) following the Commissioner of Official Languages’ recommendations of August 2012 regarding air SAR coordinators, what actions has the Department of National Defence taken to assign bilingual air SAR coordinators to the JRCCs of Trenton and Halifax?

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the closing of the search and rescue centres in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Québec City, Quebec: (a) what is the cost of relocating people from St. John’s and Québec City to either Trenton or Halifax; (b) what is the cost of linking, with a secure telephone line, the Halifax and Trenton coordination centres to emergency centres in the provinces of Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador; (c) what are the bilingual capabilities of the centres in Halifax and Trenton and what is their capacity to answer two different emergency calls simultaneously in French for both centres; (d) what is the cost of adapting each centre in Halifax and Trenton to deal with the increase in the number of calls that they will have to handle; and (e) how will the territory be split between the centres in Halifax and Trenton?

With regard to the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013–2018: (a) has the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat issued a directive or other instruction to all federal institutions participating in the implementation of the Roadmap to ensure that they consult the official language minority communities when establishing objectives, parameters, targets and performance indicators for their programs under the Roadmap; (b) how will Canadian Heritage ensure that the institutions participating in the implementation of the Roadmap effectively consult the official language minority communities in a timely manner to determine the program objectives, parameters, targets and performance indicators that must be identified before presenting an overview memorandum to Treasury Board; (c) among the federal institutions participating in the implementation of the Roadmap, are there any that have already consulted the communities with regard to program objectives, parameters, targets and performance indicators and, if so, which community groups and organizations were consulted; and (d) what deadline was given to the federal institutions for consulting the communities and for presenting their memorandum to Heritage Canada?

With regard to Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue (SAR) Centres: (a) does the government plan on using the closure of the St. John’s SAR Centre as a template for the future closure of the Quebec City SAR Centre and, if so, when will the Quebec City SAR Centre close; (b) what will the total transition costs associated with these closures be; (c) how many part-time, full-time and contract employees will lose their jobs due to these closures; (d) will employees who lose their jobs due to the closures be offered any type of severance pay and, if so, how much will be offered, (i) what will the total costs associated with any severance be; (e) what was the total operating cost for Halifax, Trenton, St. John’s and Quebec City SAR Centres for 2010; (f) what were the 2010 operating costs for the individual centres, (i) Halifax, (ii) Trenton, (iii) St. John’s, (iv) Quebec City; (g) what are the government's projected annual operating costs for the two remaining centres, (i) combined and individually, (ii) Halifax, (iii) Trenton; (h) what are the costs associated with needed infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the proposed changes in (i) Halifax, (ii) Trenton; (i) will all the employees at the remaining centres in Halifax and Trenton be fully bilingual at the highest capacity; and (j) will the government have to spend money and resources on improving French language abilities by SAR employees following the closure of the Quebec City SAR Centre and what will the total costs associated with this be?