Number 25 - Official Languages Audit - Service to the Public
- Regina, Saskatchewan
The purpose of this audit was to determine the extent to which
the selected offices in Regina (Saskatchewan) for this audit of
service to the public are complying with the policies of the
Treasury Board Secretariat and with the Official Languages
Act, especially with regards to service to the public.
The objectives of the audit derive from Part IV of the
Official Languages Act that sets out the obligations of
federal institutions and the third parties they use to serve the
public. The objectives of the on-site audit are as follows:
- to determine the extent to which the selected federal
institutions in Regina are fulfilling their obligation to serve
the public in the official language of its choice;
- to determine whether these federal institutions have the work
tools required to assist employees in meeting the service to the
public objective;
- to determine the extent to which concessionaires (third
parties) which provide services to the public on behalf of an
institution provide or make that service to the public available
in the official language of the public's choice;
- to determine the extent to which the linguistic minority is
receiving service in the official language of its choice.
In Regina, Saskatchewan, the audit team visited eight offices.
These offices were visited between December 1 to 12, 1997.
- Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre
- Clerk of the Federal Court
- Revenue Canada, Fiscal Services
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) "F" Division
Headquarters, Training Centre and Museum
- Canadian Heritage, District Office
- Public Service Commission (PSC)
- Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), District
Office
- Canada Post Franchise, Cornwall Shopping Centre
Before beginning the audit, we contacted the managers of the
selected bilingual offices and arranged the dates on which we
would be on-site to meet with them and conduct the audit. At the
same time, we contacted the internal audit heads of the
institutions whose offices were to be audited in order to inform
them of the date of our visit to their institution or to
coordinate audit efforts and avoid any possible duplication.
The methodology used included the following activities:
- review of the relevant documentation;
- interviews with managers and employees, where
applicable;
- visits to sites to which the public generally has
access;
- conducting tests and observation with respect to active offer
by telephone and in person, availability of publications in both
official languages, existence of the work tools needed to serve
the public in the language of its choice, etc;
- confirmation of the audit findings (working file) by the
manager responsible for each of the offices visited;
- analysis of the findings for each office; and,
- preparation and drafting of the report.
Managers
Responsibilities
All the managers interviewed in Regina were well aware of the
requirements of the Act respecting service in both official
languages.
With one exception, all the institutions visited have controls
in place to ensure service is always provided in both official
languages. Currently, the Canada Post franchise designated to
provide service in French is incapable as no bilingual staff are
present. Canada Post is on the verge of taking measures to
rectify this situation. Controls in place ensure there are
sufficient bilingual employees at reception, at points of service
and on the telephone, though in some cases, telephone service is
provided by either pre-registered messages or employees at remote
regional centres. Managers also encourage continuing programs of
language training.
Most institutions visited do not have mechanisms to assess
client satisfaction. However, among those that do, Canada Post
measures client satisfaction at the national level via a "client
satisfaction index" developed by a private contractor, the
Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre (CFRC) uses an applicant
questionnaire completed at their counter, and Revenue Canada has
a client satisfaction "card" system in place.
Some departments, like Canadian Heritage, Human Resources
Development Canada (HRDC), Revenue Canada, Canada Post and CFRC ,
meet with representatives of French minority language groups on a
regular basis, while others, like the Public Service Commission,
consider this is unnecessary to fulfil their objectives.
The Federal Court mandate is carried out by provincial staff
in a provincial institution. Essentially, it is a "post office"
type operation in which business is directed to federal
operations in either Calgary or Winnipeg.
Organization
Generally, the offices visited (except the Canada Post
franchise) have the capacity to provide continuous service in
both official languages. In some cases, significant numbers of
employees are Francophones while in others, staff may be
unilingual but through the use of cue cards, are able to direct
inquiries to a bilingual employee immediately. For example, all
the staff who provide services to the minority group in Canadian
Heritage are francophones, while at the Canadian Forces
Recruiting Centre, one third of the staff are bilingual. Where,
in case where the public may encounter unilingual staff, such as
at the RCMP guard house, or at some reception areas at HRDC, cue
cards are used by staff to direct inquiries to bilingual
employees nearby.
In all cases, work instruments were available on site to
provide service in both official languages.
Active Offer
Generally, to ensure that the active offer for service in
either official language is made, institutions use either one or
separate dedicated lines to serve English and French speaking
clients with an automated message. When this does not occur,
bilingual service is provided by nearby staff.
In all cases, official language symbols and signage were
present and visible at all times.
Where reception areas existed, an active offer was not
generally made. However, when in the usually rare instances that
receptionists are approached in French, staff are able to use
"cue" cards (e.g:. "Bonjour, un instant, s'il vous plaît")
to direct inquiries to bilingual staff who are almost always
immediately available.
All offices visited have permanent signage in both official
languages. In rare instances, temporary signs were in English
only.
Service
All offices visited, with the exception of the Canada Post
franchise, provided service in both official languages at all
times. In some cases, like the RCMP Museum, there might be a
delay during the off season when bilingual staff are not
immediately available.
In all but two cases, the Canada Post franchise and the Clerk
of the Federal Court (where staff were not available for
assessment), service provided is comparable in both official
languages.
Most departments did not provide services by a third party. At
the RCMP where this did occur, a service of comparable quality
was provided while it was not the case at Canadian Heritage.
However, while the one-time contractor at Canadian Heritage
was not bilingual, the contractor was provided with bilingual
support when required.
With the exception of Canada Post, where the concessionnaire
is not fulfilling its official languages obligations, departments
included in this audit do not use concessionaires.
CONCLUSION
The results of the audit indicate that the federal
institutions in Regina, Saskatchewan, are carrying out their
obligations regarding service to the public relatively well. The
only significant exceptions are with the Canada Post franchise
and the Clerk of the Federal Court where the bilingual employee
was not available during the audit.
In essence, the audit team found that the vast majority of
managers were aware of their responsibilities with regards to
official languages.
Except for the Clerk of the Federal Court and the Canada Post
franchise, to the extent that problems exist, they centre around
the active offer which is not always made. However, managers are
aware of this and are addressing this deficiency as it is the
case for RCMP.
Managers underlined that the incidence of demand for service
in French is generally extremely small in the Regina area and
this accounts for their continual struggle to have staff provide
the active offer. In addition, some managers pointed to
downsizing (e.g. PSC, from 17 to 5 staff), budget reductions and
relatively scarce bilingual resources as reasons for why they
were not always able to meet all official languages
requirements.
That the institutions audited take the necessary measures to
correct in each office all of the shortcomings identified in the
area of service to the public, especially with respect to the
following points:
- ensure an active offer of service in both official languages
at all times both on the telephone and in person;
- take the necessary action to ensure that offices designated
as bilingual have adequate bilingual capacity, both in terms of
numbers and proficiency (level of bilingualism), to offer service
in both official languages;
- meet regularly (at the local, regional or national levels)
with representatives of the official language minority community,
when they are present in the metropolitan area, in order to
determine their needs and concerns and to jointly find solutions
to any problems;
- ensure that control measures for the continuity of service in
both official languages and measures to evaluate client
satisfaction are established, so as to be able to take the
necessary corrective action;
- take the necessary action to ensure the availability of
comparable services in both official languages at all times.
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