Senator Rose-May Poirier

Senator Poirier: Thank you, minister, for your presentation. Mr. Matthew Mendelsohn, from the Privy Council Office, in his report entitled The Next Level, recommended that the Treasury Board Secretariat begin discussions with the National Joint Council to re-examine the bilingualism bonus. If you read between the lines, this means the pure and simple abolition of the bilingualism bonus for federal employees. Do you think this is the right time to withdraw the bilingualism bonus of $800 from federal employees, while many of them are having enormous problems with the Phoenix pay system? Should we not first solve that problem before we risk creating another?

Mr. Brison: First of all, let me say that we support the Borbey-Mendelsohn report. We are examining the recommendations in the report, but have not made any decisions yet. First we want to discuss potential changes with Parliament and with experts. It is clear that the public service has to provide more training in order to support public servants who are working to improve their knowledge of the French or English language so that they can progress in their career. We also must invest in technology to improve their capacity to work in the language of their choice. We have not yet made any decision, but we support the recommendations.

In regard to the Phoenix pay system, that is a very serious issue. The situation is completely unacceptable, and we are working very hard as a government to solve this problem. My colleague the Minister of Public Services and Procurement is working very hard on this issue. It is a priority for us, and, once again, the current situation is completely unacceptable.

Senator Poirier: I’m going to ask my second question in English.

[English]

The Standing Committee on Official Languages from the House of Commons released its report on Air Canada and its ongoing challenges to meet its language requirements. Everyone is aware of the issue and how Air Canada has a hard time respecting the language requirements.

The second recommendation from the report recommends that all departments involved, including Treasury, examine the annual review on official languages submitted by Air Canada to ensure it meets its official languages.

Would your department be willing to do so to help Air Canada meet its language requirements?

Mr. Brison: We worked with Transport on this. You’re quite right that Treasury Board, Transport Canada and Heritage are all involved. We want to encourage and support Air Canada to provide the best possible services in both official languages. Those are discussions that we are having currently as a government. The three ministers implicated in this discussion are Transport, Heritage and Treasury Board.

This has been a long-standing issue. It’s one that we certainly look forward to working with Air Canada on to continue the provision of high-quality services in both official languages.

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Senator Poirier: In the annual report, the airport authorities were not included among the small institutions as in previous annual reports, such as 2014-15. Instead they were evaluated separately. For what reason did you decide that for this year they should be held to a different standard compared to a small institution? Why was some part the law not evaluated for airport authorities and another part not deemed to be evaluated? For example, on page 25 the airport authorities were asked to measure the availability and quality of the services, so Part IV of the law, but on page 26 they were not asked to measure the activities of the usage of the official language in the workplace, so Part V of the law. Why were they not asked to measure Part V of the law?

Mr. Brison: I would like to get back to you on that. I think it’s particularly important not to wing it on an airport question. I know what I know, and I know sometimes what I don’t know, and I would rather get you the right answer on that.

Senator Poirier: If you’re sending us more information, could you also send us a copy of the questions that were asked for all the different institutions?

Mr. Brison: I do have a partial answer. I will get back to you with the full answer. Airport authorities are on a three-year cycle, so apparently it won’t be every single year that that report will occur. That report was done on a three-year cycle, so this year was not one of those years, I’m informed.

Senator Poirier: Could you supply to the clerk of the committee for us all a copy of the questions that were asked in the survey to measure the availability for all the different groups of the institutions, the small, the large and the airports as listed on page 25? Could you provide that to us, please?

Mr. Brison: Certainly. We will also speak with the clerk as well. I want to make sure we have all those. I have great respect for the work of parliamentary committees in the Senate, and I want to make sure we get back to you and answer your questions fully.