Management
a) An accountability framework, an action plan and accountability mechanisms are in place |
The Department has not developed its own accountability framework for OL. PWGSC uses the Treasury Board Secretariat Accountability Framework.
The Strategic Action Plan was approved in 2003 by the Executive Committee and posted on the Intranet. The plan was based on a review of the improvements to be made. It is designed to enlarge the pool of bilingual resources and make all managers accountable. The head of each branch must develop his or her own plan; concrete OL objectives are included in the managers' 2004–2005 performance agreements. The Department makes use of these performance evaluations to measure progress. |
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| b) Visibility of official languages in the organization |
The Strategic Action Plan, which is designed to improve communications and managers' commitment and to integrate OL into everyday management, promotes the visibility of the OL. The 2004–2005 Report on Plans and Priorities mentions the Department's support for the implementation of the Official Languages Action Plan. The 2003–2004 Performance Report refers to the Department's strategic OL plan.
PWGSC has not yet done an OL audit. However, the Department is preparing a linguistic profile of the organization in order to determine the actual linguistic capability.
The Official Languages Program (OLP) is often brought up at Executive Committee meetings. The OL champion and the acting deputy minister responsible for the OLP sit on the Committee; the OL director is part of the discussions bearing on the OL.
Management of Part VII of the Official Languages Act (OLA) is integrated with corporate-wide objectives, and the Executive Committee is responsible for the co-ordination of parts IV, V and VI. |
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| c) Complaints |
Complaints to the Commissioner of OL (COL) are recorded in an official register and a follow-up is conducted. Managers are responsible for analysing complaints and taking the necessary corrective measures in consultation with the OL officials. The Annual OL Review is used as an opportunity to report on all the complaints.
The PWGSC Strategic Action Plan aims to solve systemic problems. These problems are as follows: administrative practices incompatible with the OLA as far as language of work, language profiles of positions and central services are concerned. |
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Service to the public - Part IV
a) Bilingual services advertised to the public and sufficient bilingual staff |
MERX, the on-line tender announcement system, indicates to users that they can communicate in the official language of their choice. Points of service are listed in Burolis.
While visiting service outlets in the fall of 2004, OCOL representatives noted that Burolis was not up to date, particularly in the case of service outlet 2966.
PWGSC provides tools to the offices designated bilingual so that they can fulfil their obligations while a network of co-ordinators is in charge of regional initiatives.
As of March 31, 2004, the Position and Classification Information System (PCIS) indicated that 85.4% of incumbents of bilingual positions serving the public met the linguistic requirements of their position. |
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| b) Findings on active offer and service delivery |
According to observations on in-person service made by
the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages in
the fall of 2004, active visual offer was present in 50.0%
of cases; active offer by the
attendant was made in 20.0% of cases, while service in
the language of the minority was adequate in 90% of cases.
The results of the latest telephone service audit by the
Public Service Human Resources Management Agency showed
that active offer of service was made by staff 45.7% of the time, on telephone
answering
machines 74.3% of the time, while it was actually provided
in both OL 70.0% of the time. |
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| c) The service agreements delivered by third parties or in partnership provide for the delivery of bilingual services |
PWGSC uses standard language clauses in the agreements (for example, in building maintenance or travel services for public servants). No examples of regular monitoring of services offered by third parties. |
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| d) Bilingual services quality monitoring |
Managers must ensure that the spirit of the OLA is respected. PWGSC is using the departmental Intranet to make employees aware of the impact of the Act in organizational plans, staffing and communications with the public. PWGSC offers a workshop for middle managers on the expectations of supervisors in terms of service (values-based approach).
The clientele, which is largely internal, is already aware of its linguistic rights. Those employees who deal with the public attend a briefing session on the scope of the OLA. PWGSC gives workshops on manager awareness and training; the recent announcement of policies by the Treasury Board provided the opportunity to participate in numerous sessions with various levels of departmental management.
No examples of regular monitoring of bilingual services offered by the Department. |
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Language of work - Part V
a) Adequate bilingual supervision and language of work policy |
88% of EX incumbents and 84.0% of supervisors in bilingual
positions in bilingual regions meet the language requirements
of their position (data obtained from the Human Resource Management Agency's
Position
Information Collection System, as of March 31, 2004).
Departmental policy DP-064, posted on the OL Intranet site in June 1998, deals with language of work in bilingual regions (personal services, work instruments, etc.).
The Action Plan includes a component on workplaces conducive to the use of both OL (exemplary Public Service). PWGSC offers manager awareness and training workshops on the values of OL. |
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| b) Use of each language in the workplace |
The results of the 2002 Public Service-Wide Employees Survey showed that 76.6% of Francophone respondents of the bilingual regions of Ontario, NCR and New Brunswick and 69.6% of Anglophone respondents from bilingual regions of Quebec "Strongly agree" or "Mostly agree" with the language of work regime.
In order to ensure enlightened responsibility on the part of managers, Translation Bureau representatives sit on each of the regional management committees.
Every opportunity is taken to issue reminders to employees inviting them to use the language of their choice. It is up to the managers to make these reminders. At the beginning of meetings, the participants are encouraged to express themselves in the official language of their choice.
Both languages are used in deliberations at Executive Committee meetings.
There is no evidence of regular monitoring to determine if the language of work policy is being appropriately implemented. |
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Equitable participation - Part VI
a) Percentage of Francophone participation throughout Canada |
Francophones account for 45.0% of the PWGSC workforce as
a whole (Source: Position and Classification Information
System as of March 31, 2004). |
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| b) Percentage of Anglophone participation in Quebec |
Anglophones account for 3.0% of the PWGSC workforce in
Quebec (Source: Position and Classification Information System as of March
31
2004). |
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Development of minority language communities and promotion of linguistic duality - Part VII
a) Strategic planning and the development of policies and programs take into account the development of minority language communities |
As a key department, PWGSC produces an annual summary of activities carried out under section 41. This summary is tied to a three-year action plan (a new plan will be produced with the 2004–2005 summary). A departmental officer was assigned to Part VII of the OLA on a half-time basis. The Department has a network of regional section 41 coordinators. According to Canadian Heritage's 2003–2004 OL Report, PWGSC took part in various meetings at which OLMC representatives explained their priorities, thereby enabling the Department to better understand these communities' realities.
The OL Director sits on Canadian Heritage's minority press committee, although there are few opportunities to make use of minority news organs, since most of the services are offered to other departments.
Employees are made aware of the needs of the minority communities during orientation sessions whose content is posted on the Intranet. Regular meetings are also held with the HR directors to make them aware of their overall obligations, including that of enhancing the vitality of the OL minorities.
PWGSC offered some hundred computers to minority associations and the departmental library donated encyclopedias. A departmental communication officer is a member of the Chambre économique de l'Ontario. PWGSC offers the software Termium (terminology database) to minority groups free of charge. The Department is planning to participate in the 2005 Rendez-vous de la Francophonie and offered translation services to the organizers of the Acadian Congress.
The Department does not systematically review all memoranda to Cabinet or Treasury Board submissions with official language minorities in mind, but such a practice is being considered. |
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| b) Strategic planning and the development of policies and programs take into account the promotion of linguistic duality |
The section 41 action plan confirms the Department's commitment in this respect.
PWGSC is conducting a pilot project, under part VII of the
OLA, on the control of linguistic clauses in third-party
service delivery agreements. A distinction is made between leases and
third parties that
deliver services for PWGSC. The study on leases in federal
government buildings (March 2004), by the Office of the Commissioner of
Official
Languages, indicated that only 18.0% of leases that fall
under the responsibility of PWGSC contained language clauses to inform
its tenants of language
requirements. Since the study was made public, the Department
has presented an action plan with a commitment to ensure that appropriate
clauses are
systematically inserted in contracts (in certain cases,
it will be necessary to wait for the renewal of multi-year leases).
In order to encourage managers to improve their command of both OL, the Translation Bureau launched The Language Nook/Le Coin linguistique, a user-friendly extranet site offering language advice to public servants. Messages from the COL are also disseminated on the departmental Intranet.
PWGSC has taken the following initiatives to promote Canadian linguistic duality: creation of a network of section 41 co-ordinators; active participation by the Translation Bureau (TB) in the establishment of the new language technology research centre (Gatineau), a joint project with the UQO and Industry Canada; co-operation between the TB and the universities that offer translation programs in order to train the next generation of translators (CO-OP programs); and talks in the context of the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie on the importance of Canada's Francophone heritage and on the importance of honouring French language and culture. |
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| OVERALL RATING |
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