October 25, 2004

(Translation of a letter sent to Ottawa daily Le Droit.)

Dear Madam/Sir:

We regret that the article published on October 20 regarding the annual report of the Commissioner of Official Languages, entitled La capitale fédérale génère plus du tiers des plaintes au pays (The federal capital generates more than one third of all complaints in the country), failed to provide a more comprehensive portrayal of Canada Post's record with respect to official languages. In seeking to provide an overview of the situation, the article discredits Canada Post. Please allow me to clarify certain details.

First, you rightly indicate that Canada Post leads all federal institutions that generated 15 or more admissible complaints in 2003-2004. What you fail to point out, however, is that the Commissioner's office found 13 of 66 complaints inadmissible. If we adjust the figures, Canada Post no longer leads this notorious pack. Furthermore, these statistics require some perspective. Canada Post Corporation is one of Canada's largest Crown corporations, with 70,000 employees, making it the country's seventh largest employer. It also operates 7,000 post offices, Canada's largest retail network. Given this huge presence, Canada Post obviously is more likely to generate complaints.

Of course, even one complaint is too many and Canada Post has been working very hard for years to eliminate their causes. Our initiatives are paying off. In 1989, 359 were filed against us, compared with 66 in 2003-2004. We attribute this significant reduction to the measures we have implemented. The annual report of the Commissioner of Official Languages also has praise for us. It notes that we have established a complete management framework for the official languages program that includes a clear policy, specific language clauses governing postal franchise operators and well defined monitoring measures. The report also states that Canada Post has chosen to continue providing services in French in more than 60 offices that have lost their bilingual designation as a result of the 2001 Census.

I hope this information will convince your readers that the official languages situation at Canada Post is not all doom and gloom, and that official languages remain one of our top priorities.

Sincerely,

François Legault
Media Relations
Canada Post
(613) 734-8847